Benlana Book 3: The Consort Conundrum
by Jade-Max
Summary: Sequel to Deception & A Future Uncertain - Allana's search for a consort takes some unexpected twists. Major AU. Benlana.
1. Introduction

Disclaimer: It's George's Sandbox; I'm just wrecking the sandcastles.

**Title:** The Consort Conundrum

**Author:** Jade-Max

**Genre:** Drama, Angst, Romance, Short Story

**Timeframe:** Post Dark Nest AU

**Summary:** Sequel to **Deception **& **A Future Uncertain **- Allana's search for a consort takes some unexpected twists.

**Notes:** Reading the previous two is recommended but not necessary to understand this plot line - it will mostly be covered in the introduction. Mostly...

**Author's Note: **I will be posting as I edit the chapters for the site. Shouldn't take very long...

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><p><strong>The Consort Conundrum <strong>

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><p><strong><em>Introduction<em>**

_Allana Djo has been crowned the Queen Mother of the Hapes Cluster. _

_For the past four years she has toiled to put right the mess made since her mother's death. As a consequence, she has reclaimed the power from the people temporarily and made arbitrary decisions on current laws. The sole law on Hapes, she has complete and utter control over judiciary, domestic and interplanetary rights and freedoms._

_Her father, Zekk of Ennth, step-mother, Jaina Solo, and grandfather, Isolder, have been working with her over the past year to draft a new Constitution for the Hapans that will take dozens of years to implement in various stages._

_It is only now, nearing her 21st life day, pressure has begun to escalate on the young Queen Mother to find herself a consort and give Hapes an heir. With the pressure comes a reminder of a promise from her childhood playmate and secret sweetheart, Ben Skywalker - and the knowledge that their reunion after a long four year separation is long overdue..._


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Allana slapped the flimsi down on her desk with a snap. "Inexcusable, Mila."

Her bodyguard Mila snapped to attention. "Your pardon, My Queen, but the Noble families feel that you should limit your choice of consort to one of their young men."

"Unacceptable." Allana planted both hands flat on her desk and rose to her feet, leaning towards the other woman. "The Noble lines in this Cluster are regressing and degenerating from inbreeding. They have little to offer as a proper genetic match and I will not consider them."

"Not even Isys, my Queen?"

Allana appeared to consider it for a moment. "Perhaps. He is from one of the less regressive lines and a newly minted noble."

"He is no match for your lineage."

Allana's answering smile was faint. "I appreciate the concern, Mila, but lines are still traced solely through the female in the family; I doubt his lineage would come into play despite the reforms I am proposing."

"The Nobles don't agree with it."

"Of course they don't," Allana sat back down in disgust. "They want to continue breeding their daughters and sons together despite the fact they're second or third cousins. It must stop if Hapes is to have any chance of true Noble lines. Fresh blood into any of them would be a blessing."

"Then perhaps you should consider one of them a match beyond Isys?"

"One or two are possibly acceptable." Allana felt a twinge and brushed it off. "What we need to do is some kind of contest."

"Contest, my Queen?"

Allana nodded. "A contest. In which any male - _any_ male - who is not related to my blood line in any way can prove himself a match for me. I will not be like my mother's grandmother and simply look for beauty."

"Then you may be sadly disappointed, my Queen. There are few Hapan Nobles who are a match for you in both skill and wit."

"I said _any_ male, Mila. Surely there must be one man somewhere in the Hapan cluster, and if not there than in the galaxy, who can challenge me."

Mila smiled tolerantly. "It is not good for the Queen Mother to be seen as challenged by her own consort; it would be a blow to morale."

"For women perhaps. You forget I was challenged on a daily basis by men before coming to Hapes. My own father, the Prince Consort, spars with me several times a week. I have yet to see a detrimental effect on the populace." Allana pushed back to her feet and began to pace.

She'd been a lanky teenager still filling in when she'd first arrived on Hapes. Now, four years later, she was a bundle of tightly leashed energy wrapped in muscle and sinew she worked hard to maintain on her schedule. Dismissing the court and taking direct control had freed up most of her time - they had been tedious and petty, unwilling to give power back to the people because it diminished their so-called influence.

Allana had found them stuffy, arrogant and outdated. Their disbanding had been her first official act; one she hadn't regretted despite the assassination attempts and enemies she'd made.

Few of them boasted her physical prowess; few of them were as beautiful on a planet of beautiful people. Allana had often found herself referred to as the gem of Hapes. She was the object of young men's distant affections from all over the cluster, despite her idiosyncrasies.

She refused to wear gowns except for official functions. She refused to allow audiences for males wishing to make themselves known to her. She refused to make time for the Nobles on a regular basis, choosing instead when _she_ would visit _them_. The tactic and her impulsive, sporadic appearances in public had served her well. She was unpredictable, highly intelligent, and cautious despite it.

As a Jedi, some people feared her. As their Queen Mother, they adored her.

Allana brought her thoughts back to the present with difficulty. It was hard to believe she was already being pressured for an heir to the throne. "Mila, isn't it a little soon to be thinking about taking a consort?"

"Your mother's grandmother had a consort by the time she was seventeen, your highness. Your own mother's preference for Jedi Jacen Solo's company was known when she was sixteen, though they did not officially declare him consort. Each Queen Mother makes her own decision, but an Heir is a necessity. Should something befall you, the Consortium will need someone to continue on."

Allana waved one hand dismissively. "I understand all that, but I don't think I'm ready yet."

"Perhaps if you should deign to take one of the young men to your bed, you would feel more willing? The act itself can be quite pleasurable."

A shiver of revulsion slid down Allana's spine at the thought of any one of the miscreants who called themselves 'Nobles' touching her. It must have shown on her face because Mila chuckled. In the last four years, Mila had come to admire the young Queen Mother and - once she got past the initial insults at the academy - had become fast friends. She was Allana's only confidant.

"I see that is not an option. Someone else then; Ben Skywalker, perhaps?"

Allana stumbled as she paused mid-stride, whirling to look at her bodyguard. "What?"

"I said, perhaps Ben Skywalker-"

"I heard you." Allana felt like she'd been sucker punched, the ache in her chest - an ache she lived with daily from his absence - swelling and blocking her throat. She missed him dearly. His smile, his easy way of speaking with her instead of at her; the way his hair fell into his eyes and his nickname for her. He was genuine; no pretenses, no misleading details. No surgery, no dental work; simply Ben Skywalker as he'd been born.

"Allana?"

There was only one problem. Allana looked back to her bodyguard, unable to hide the bleakness in her gaze. "There's just one problem with your plan, Mila; Ben's been missing for the last seventeen months."

Allana closed the door to her chambers and leaned against it, fighting against the weight on her chest. Ben was still missing and the Jedi were starting to think he'd been killed in action. But he wasn't dead; she knew that much. He was just... gone. Her eyes closed as she thought about what she knew.

Ben had been given a choice assignment by his parents; he hadn't told her what, but his message had been excited and exhilarated. She'd been happy for him, even if it meant he'd be in deep cover for the better part of two years and unable to get in touch with her. Past experience dictated that he would get in touch with her if and when he could, even if it was simply when the assignment was over. She'd heard updates from Zekk, but they were sketchy at best.

And then something had gone wrong.

Ben had failed to show for a scheduled rendezvous, given none of the distress signals nor left messages for anyone. He'd simply _vanished_ like some kind of specter. All efforts, or so she'd heard, had failed in locating him. He'd just disappeared, without so much as a by-your-leave, a goodbye or a sign. He hadn't even sent her a message, which she'd hoped he would have if he'd been able.

But maybe he hadn't been able. All Allana knew was that there was a spot inside her she called Ben's and it was still as brilliantly lit as ever. She was confident she would know, she would _feel_ if he died. So confident that she'd even informed his parents of it. Neither Luke nor Mara had been able to convince her otherwise, and both had finally conceded that they, too, thought him alive but didn't know where to begin. All trails leading from his assignment were cold, too cold to begin a new search.

If Ben was going to get out of whatever scrape he'd landed himself in, he was on his own.

She moved away from the door, towards her bedroom with long strides as she plucked the pins from her hair one at a time. She collected them, dropping them in the bottle on her vanity for such a purpose before throwing herself on her bed.

Ben had made her a promise once, before she'd come to Hapes, one she'd thought he'd honor. One she'd hoped he'd honor, but with him missing, the chances seemed slim. Her idea for finding a consort beyond Hapes was a carefully veiled attempt to reach him, to let him know that whatever he'd been planning, the time was now. She didn't need a consort who would stay with her all the time. She wouldn't even insist he live on Hapes, or give up his Jedi assignments despite this latest set back.

Of course she had to locate him first.

If he was still willing.

A frown crossed her features as she rolled onto her back to stare blankly upwards. She'd changed a lot in the last four years. She'd become a woman in more ways than one, and not so much in some. In the ways of romance, she admitted, she was still a novice. Not for lack of trying on anyone's part but her own.

She simply wasn't interested. She had more important things to do than sit and let some guy slobber all over her neck or shoulder. And they all wanted to. More than one was fascinated with her chest and while she wasn't comfortable with it, she'd grown accustomed to the feeling of being an object of desire. As much as one could, anyway. She still wasn't completely comfortable, but enough that she could hide it well.

It didn't help that she'd been kissed by men of all ages and only been more and more repulsed by the idea of having to choose one to father the Heir. The only one who'd generated a feeling that wasn't a family member to revulsion was Isys, though it lacked something even someone as untrained as she could notice.

Her lips twisted again.

It figures. She'd had the chance to kiss Ben four years ago and never taken it. Something told her she wouldn't be disappointed by _his_ kiss.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it!" she grabbed her pillow and dragged it over her head, smacking herself with each repetition. "You're not making things any easier by wondering what could have been, you have to focus on what will be!"

Silence answered her, as expected, and she tossed the pillow away in disgust. Moping about Ben was just making it harder to do what everyone saw as her duty, and she considered about the most terrifying thing ever. Her father and step-mother appeared to enjoy it - her second half-sibling was well on the way - and they'd more than once offered to listen to her fears. Allana couldn't even dream about speaking with her father about procreation, so she'd cornered Jaina one day and asked all of her questions.

She'd left feeling worse instead of better, her stomach churning and heaving at the thought of having to do _that_ with anyone she'd met on Hapes - even Isys. He was nice enough, and she liked him, but he wasn't the kind of person who inspired her to reach beyond her current abilities. He didn't inspire passion or desire, he was simply... comfortable.

And Allana didn't want 'comfort' for the rest of her life. Oh, she knew she could take multiple consorts, different ones at different times if she wanted, but she thought of the man she'd take as a husband of sorts. He would be loyal to her - he'd have to be or she'd have him disappear without a trace - just as she planned to be loyal to him.

Unlike her mother's grandmother, Allana had no intention of leaving a trail of lovers anyone could scoop up. She was like her father, both her curse and her blessing, and by the Force she was going to do this right. Maybe if she stalled long enough, she could make her choice her husband instead of consort - the first of the reforms that were being implemented.

Families would then need to be traced back three generations to ensure blood purity and ensure neither was related, register and then the men would have an _equal_ say in the family affairs. Something few if any had currently. It wasn't going to be a popular reform among the women, not at first, but Allana was confident women enjoyed to be challenged, even Hapan women. Mostly because she'd noted the matrons preferred willful males; ones who hadn't yet been broken.

Ben would have been hounded on Hapes.

She rolled back to her feet with disgust and changed, slipping into her nightgown and light cover before cinching it closed. Her feet now bare, she padded to the balcony access and threw the doors open.

The moon shone high and full in the sky, illuminating the beach below her window for miles. Empty stretches of beach she ran every morning with her father and brother - though Zekk probably carried Jacen more than the kid ran. A smile touched her lips as she leaned on the balcony, letting the stiff breeze from the ocean slide soothingly over her skin, even as chill bumps began to rise on her body. Tonight was a beautiful night; like many others on Hapes. If there was something Hapes didn't lack, it was beauty.

But that beauty hid an ugly soul, something few understood and fewer identified. Allana could see it because she'd been raised elsewhere. The poverty, man's inhumanity to man, the inequalities, the indifference and the abuse were rampant. All things society turned a blind eye to here more than anywhere. All things she was striving to bring to the public's eye as inappropriate.

It was slow going, but a worth cause and she was determined not to fail. New laws preventing abuse, be it to child or spouse (no longer just wife) were being introduced at the end of the week. The following week she was abolishing the restriction for men to vote - once elections were eventually reinstated. The following weeks gave men the right to property, made them citizens, gave them parental roles and responsibilities - the list continued weekly for more than the next two years.

It meant the majority of her population would become true citizens instead of second class ones. It meant fathers could claim rights on their children. But it also meant responsibilities; taxes, child support, the necessity of holding down a job.

Allana rubbed her forehead. Her mother had left a detailed plan of what she'd intended to do for her reign, something Allana had been delighted to find intact, and she'd wasted no time in asserting herself as following in her mother's footsteps. Ta'a Chume, her mother's grandmother, had been less than pleased.

Her lips twisted. She didn't miss the old hag. When the woman had died of heart failure - suspected poisoning - in Allana's second year at the palace, she'd shed few tears for the woman. The old lady had been demanding, overly critical, politically sound but in a direction Allana hadn't wanted to go. Ta'a Chume had been her biggest hurdle and while she hadn't killed her, Allana did feel somewhat responsible for it.

Ta'a Chume might have lived another few decades if she hadn't returned.

Her own grandfather, Isolder, was still in the palace. He spent most of his time in study now that his time was his own, and Allana loved to sit with him. She hadn't had much contact beyond the occasional holo-letter or life-day gift, so being able to bask in his presence had been - and continued to be - a real boon. They spoke of her mother mostly, Isolder sharing his remembrance of his daughter and assuring Allana that her mother would have been proud of her.

Those moments meant more to Allana than any other she'd yet spent on the planet.

She straightened at the balcony rail and stepped back inside, closing the doors behind her. Her mind was all over the place this evening - probably thanks to Mila saying Ben's name - and she wasn't going to get any sleep if she continued as she was. With a determined stride she put all her worries from her mind and slipped between her covers.

Her last thought some hours later when sleep finally claimed her was that Ben had finally broken a promise to her. It was that heart-breaking thought that followed her into dreamland.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Zekk flipped the flapjacks on the grill with a twitch of his wrist before turning to look back at his wife. "I can't help it; I'm worried about her."

"Who, Dadda?"

Zekk ruffled his son's unruly dark hair. "Your sister, kid."

The three year old blinked, his brown eyes crossing slightly as he digested the thought. He was latched securely around Zekk's leg, holding onto his knee to keep his balance. "'Lana?"

"Allana's not been herself since the news of Ben's disappearance."

Jaina, eight months pregnant and looking the part, sat in one of the chairs at the table with her feet on another. "Allana's got a lot on her plate, Zekk. Ben's disappearance is just one worry that could be causing her to act a little strange."

Zekk collected one of the plates at the side and slid the finished flapjacks onto it before adding sausage and eggs. Jacen latched firmly to his knee, he turned and placed the plate in front of Jaina. She smiled her thanks even as he turned back to create a smaller plate for their son and one for himself. "I still think it's Ben - and this whole consort thing."

"So what, you want to go rushing off and play Hero? My cousin can take care of himself you know - he _is_ almost thirty."

"Don't remind me." Zekk placed the last of the plates on the table and added a sippy cup of juice before swinging Jacen into his arms. "Com'ere kiddo; it's time for breakfast."

Jacen squealed and clapped his chubby hands as Zekk settled him in his booster seat. Both hands then promptly disappeared into the scrambled eggs. Zekk chuckled, shaking his head. "One of these days, champ, we'll get you to eat with your utensils."

"Don't hold your breath."

Zekk arched an eyebrow at Jaina. "I wasn't planning on it. Can I get you anything else?"

"I think there's enough here for an army - and I feel like I'm feeding one." She shifted in her chair, grimacing. "This is the last, Zekk; no more after this."

"I figured; I'd like to enjoy my old age eventually."

Jaina threw her napkin at him and then Jacen, mimicking his mother did too with a giggle.

"Now look what you started?" Zekk collected both napkins, passing them back to their owners only to have Jacen throw it back in his face with a delighted giggle. Zekk turned his stern gaze on their son. "No, Jacen."

The giggle died almost instantly and those big brown eyes, the same shade as Jaina's widened alarmingly. "But... but..." his bottom lip slipped out as he turned to look at his mother beseechingly; it was fun game!

Jaina smiled and reached over to ruffle Jacen's hair. "Sorry kiddo, mommy messed up too. No more throwing the napkins, okay?"

The little boy heaved a huge sigh and promptly turned back to his eggs, getting them everywhere in an attempt to make up for the interrupted game.

Jaina turned her eyes back to Zekk. "We're not old yet and by the time we're in our prime, the kids will be grown. You can't tell me you don't love this; you're so good with him."

Zekk's pale cheeks colored at the praise. Jaina was constantly praising his parenthood efforts and seemed to forget he'd done this before - on his own. "It's no big deal when you love someone. Speaking of..."

"I know; Allana." Jaina sighed. "I don't know. The public knows she's turning twenty one this month. They know it's the official age for an unattached Queen Mother to find herself a consort and hopefully provide an heir. But they don't know _her_. I just can't see Allana settling for someone who doesn't accept her for who she is, not what - and Hapans have never been very good at that. With exceptions of course."

"Of course." Zekk slipped a forkful of food into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully and swallowing before speaking once more. "Do you think there's anything we can do?"

Jaina rubbed her distended belly. "I can't do much beyond sit on the couch. You, however..." Her lips tilted into the classic Solo grin she'd inherited from her father. "You're the one person who could steal her away without drawing any kind of public ire."

"With everything she's been struggling to accomplish, I can't think of a worse time for her to disappear than now." Zekk shook his head. "The better solution is to locate that cousin of yours."

"Do you honestly think we should be interfering?" Jaina pointed at him with her fork. "Allana _is_ old enough to make her own decisions."

"I know," He answering smile was rueful. "I guess I just don't like to admit that she's all grown up. Hell, if the Hapans have their way, we'll have a grandchild in the same age range as our own!"

Jaina chuckled softly. "You're such a worry wart. Relax; Allana's a big girl. She'll do what she feels is necessary; you'll see."

"Is that the 'Trust in the Force and things will all work out' speech?"

"Something tells me that's all we've got to do here. Things will work out in the end; you'll see."

Zekk examined her thoughtfully. "Since when did you become an optimist?"

Jaina winked at him, lifting another bit to her lips. "Since a certain someone beat the odds not once, but twice, and asked me to be his wife."

Jacen chose at that moment to throw his flapjack across the table like a Frisbee, splattering jam and butter on both his parents. It effectively ended their conversation, but despite the shift of his focus, Zekk couldn't shake the feeling that he had to do _something_ to help Allana. The question was simply what.

Chapter 2

Zekk flipped the flapjacks on the grill with a twitch of his wrist before turning to look back at his wife. "I can't help it; I'm worried about her."

"Who, Dadda?"

Zekk ruffled his son's unruly dark hair. "Your sister, kid."

The three year old blinked, his brown eyes crossing slightly as he digested the thought. He was latched securely around Zekk's leg, holding onto his knee to keep his balance. "'Lana?"

"Allana's not been herself since the news of Ben's disappearance."

Jaina, eight months pregnant and looking the part, sat in one of the chairs at the table with her feet on another. "Allana's got a lot on her plate, Zekk. Ben's disappearance is just one worry that could be causing her to act a little strange."

Zekk collected one of the plates at the side and slid the finished flapjacks onto it before adding sausage and eggs. Jacen latched firmly to his knee, he turned and placed the plate in front of Jaina. She smiled her thanks even as he turned back to create a smaller plate for their son and one for himself. "I still think it's Ben - and this whole consort thing."

"So what, you want to go rushing off and play Hero? My cousin can take care of himself you know - he _is_ almost thirty."

"Don't remind me." Zekk placed the last of the plates on the table and added a sippy cup of juice before swinging Jacen into his arms. "Com'ere kiddo; it's time for breakfast."

Jacen squealed and clapped his chubby hands as Zekk settled him in his booster seat. Both hands then promptly disappeared into the scrambled eggs. Zekk chuckled, shaking his head. "One of these days, champ, we'll get you to eat with your utensils."

"Don't hold your breath."

Zekk arched an eyebrow at Jaina. "I wasn't planning on it. Can I get you anything else?"

"I think there's enough here for an army - and I feel like I'm feeding one." She shifted in her chair, grimacing. "This is the last, Zekk; no more after this."

"I figured; I'd like to enjoy my old age eventually."

Jaina threw her napkin at him and then Jacen, mimicking his mother did too with a giggle.

"Now look what you started?" Zekk collected both napkins, passing them back to their owners only to have Jacen throw it back in his face with a delighted giggle. Zekk turned his stern gaze on their son. "No, Jacen."

The giggle died almost instantly and those big brown eyes, the same shade as Jaina's widened alarmingly. "But... but..." his bottom lip slipped out as he turned to look at his mother beseechingly; it was fun game!

Jaina smiled and reached over to ruffle Jacen's hair. "Sorry kiddo, mommy messed up too. No more throwing the napkins, okay?"

The little boy heaved a huge sigh and promptly turned back to his eggs, getting them everywhere in an attempt to make up for the interrupted game.

Jaina turned her eyes back to Zekk. "We're not old yet and by the time we're in our prime, the kids will be grown. You can't tell me you don't love this; you're so good with him."

Zekk's pale cheeks colored at the praise. Jaina was constantly praising his parenthood efforts and seemed to forget he'd done this before - on his own. "It's no big deal when you love someone. Speaking of..."

"I know; Allana." Jaina sighed. "I don't know. The public knows she's turning twenty one this month. They know it's the official age for an unattached Queen Mother to find herself a consort and hopefully provide an heir. But they don't know _her_. I just can't see Allana settling for someone who doesn't accept her for who she is, not what - and Hapans have never been very good at that. With exceptions of course."

"Of course." Zekk slipped a forkful of food into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully and swallowing before speaking once more. "Do you think there's anything we can do?"

Jaina rubbed her distended belly. "I can't do much beyond sit on the couch. You, however..." Her lips tilted into the classic Solo grin she'd inherited from her father. "You're the one person who could steal her away without drawing any kind of public ire."

"With everything she's been struggling to accomplish, I can't think of a worse time for her to disappear than now." Zekk shook his head. "The better solution is to locate that cousin of yours."

"Do you honestly think we should be interfering?" Jaina pointed at him with her fork. "Allana _is_ old enough to make her own decisions."

"I know," He answering smile was rueful. "I guess I just don't like to admit that she's all grown up. Hell, if the Hapans have their way, we'll have a grandchild in the same age range as our own!"

Jaina chuckled softly. "You're such a worry wart. Relax; Allana's a big girl. She'll do what she feels is necessary; you'll see."

"Is that the 'Trust in the Force and things will all work out' speech?"

"Something tells me that's all we've got to do here. Things will work out in the end; you'll see."

Zekk examined her thoughtfully. "Since when did you become an optimist?"

Jaina winked at him, lifting another bit to her lips. "Since a certain someone beat the odds not once, but twice, and asked me to be his wife."

Jacen chose at that moment to throw his flapjack across the table like a Frisbee, splattering jam and butter on both his parents. It effectively ended their conversation, but despite the shift of his focus, Zekk couldn't shake the feeling that he had to do _something_ to help Allana. The question was simply what.

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><p>Allana woke the following morning to the sound of thunder booming and water lashing the window panes. The light that filtered in was weak, indicating heavy overcast skies to match her mood. She closed her eyes, flinging one arm across them to keep even that small amount of light out.<p>

Another day, another reform to pass - another constant worry about Ben's continued disappearance.

Her heart ached - she missed him fiercely and worried about him constantly in the back of her mind. Oh, she tried to forget about him, passed the niggling reminders off as nothing, but she was lying to herself. She _knew_ it was Ben that was on her thoughts, especially now with the pressure mounting to provide Hapes with an Heir.

Was this how her mother had felt? Was this kind of pressure what had driven Tenel Ka to seek out her father when Jacen Solo hadn't returned? Or were there other factors? Had her mother truly craved a child, any child, to ease the loneliness that surrounded her existence? Something told her it wasn't that simple.

"Nothing is ever that simple, Allana."

She rolled from the bed, hitting the floor in a crouch, her hand already calling her lightsaber to it as she peered over the top of her mattress.

A light blue glowing figure stood in the center of her room - a figure from dim memories that had faded to the furthest reaches of her subconscious. Allana squinted and the form coalesced into something more visible. She straightened slowly, watching and sucking in a sharp breath as she realized who stood in her bedchamber.

"Mother."

The ghost of Tenel Ka inclined her head.

Allana frowned. "Were you listening in to my thoughts?"

"Your thoughts flow to the Force, my daughter. They call for help - I am here to help you."

"But you said things are never that simple."

"And so they are not." Tenel Ka sat on the edge of the bed, motioning for Allana to join her.

Hesitant and wondering if she was dreaming, Allana crawled back onto the large mattress and sat cross-legged nearby. She couldn't help but stare at the beautiful ghost who had been her mother. They shared many of the same features. Their eyes slanted the same way and their hair was the same silky to look-at texture. Allana saw a leanness in her mother's features that wasn't present in her own, though they were both wiry, honed weapons from head to toe.

"Why now?"

Tenel Ka arched a single eyebrow in a silent query for an explanation - a gesture Allana recognized as one she herself used.

Allana smiled faintly. "I mean, why see me now? Why not when I was a kid? I begged the Force to let me talk to you, to see you. I missed you so much. Why see me now, when I'm learning to stand on my own?"

"Why not now?" Tenel Ka returned. "You did not need me before; you had your father to help you. In this, he cannot help, but I can."

"What, this consort mess?"

Tenel Ka nodded.

Allana sighed. "Mother, it's not that I don't appreciate the offer, but I don't have any intention of taking a consort. Not until things settle down more, anyway. As it is, there are no suitable candidates. Every single one of them in an inbred weasel with delusions of controlling me."

"You are forgetting something, daughter."

Allana mimicked her mother's previous gesture, arching an eyebrow in silent query.

The gesture wasn't lost on Tenel Ka who's lips split in the barest of smiles. "To remain the Queen Mother, it is a Hapan law for you to have a consort. Be it temporary, permanent or intermittent, you must present the people with the _impression_ of attempting to secure your bloodline."

Allana groaned. "I forgot about that. With everything else I'm trying to do, I keep forgetting there are rules I have to follow."

"A monarch leads by example, my daughter. Your obsession with Ben Skywalker may be your downfall as mine was with Jacen Solo."

"Did he really kill you?"

Tenel Ka nodded.

"Then why does everyone talk about him so fondly? My own brother is named after him!"

The soft smile that split Tenel Ka's lips was so completely unexpected that Allana could only stare as her mother's face shifted from the stern warrior woman, to that of a woman who loved. "Jacen Solo was a good man before. His path to redemption has been a long one. I cannot blame him for his crime against me, my daughter, just as you do not blame Ben Skywalker for his broken promise. Love crosses all boundaries." She rose to her feet, shimmering in the dim light of the bedroom. "But love is not necessary to obtain an heir. Remember this; friendship and mutual respect gave me you. Be well, my daughter."

"Mother, wait!" Allana lunged for her, but the specter had already dissolved, leaving her alone in her room. She landed stretched out on her bed and closed her eyes in silent denial even as her mother's words echoed through her brain. Love hadn't been necessary.

A hollow ache built up in her throat, tightening it painfully as she considered the words. Silently, determinedly, she decided her mother was wrong about one thing. Love _was_ necessary for one reason and one reason alone.

If she didn't love the man with whom she first chose to share her bed, she would regret it for the rest of her life.

* * *

><p>The day passed slowly, Allana introducing the new reform to be implemented that morning before retiring to her training salle to practice. Mila followed her, the ever present shadow, and watched the surrounding shadows as Allana stripped down to a tank top and shorts and began stretching.<p>

"Ignoring them won't make them go away, Allana."

"I know." She bent; reaching for her toes as she practically folded herself in half. "But it can make them wonder why they haven't been sent away yet."

Mila was quiet for a brief moment. "May I inquire why they _haven't_ been?"

Allana flashed her a smile. "Do you remember what I told you yesterday? About the conditions that would need to be met for someone to even be _considered_ for the position of Royal Consort?"

"The part about a competition?"

She nodded, her smile turning into an impish grin. "That's the one. You can admit them to the gallery," Allana nodded to the seats which encircled the area, "and admit anyone who would challenge me for the position of consort from there."

"One at a time, I presume?"

"You presume too much." Allana winked at her friend. "You're forgetting I have the Force to back me up and not one of those sods has the slightly inkling of what they're getting themselves into. They can face me in twos or threes if they like, but I promise you none of them shall conquer me this day."

Mila sighed, shaking her head at the Queen Mother's rashness, and disappeared from the gallery to inform those men waiting to vow themselves to the Queen of the conditions in which they would face her.

Allana inhaled deeply in the pace that reigned with her bodyguard's departure. She was confident, but not arrogant, in her abilities. With the Force as her ally - even without it - she was a better than any man who had yet come seeking her hand. She knew it as a point of fact despite their claims to always let her win in the sports she chose. Well, today would be different. Each would fight, and seen to be fighting, to their utmost potential or she would disqualify them immediately.

Bending to continue her stretches, she missed the movement in the shadows behind her.

The Force spiked, sending her a warning she'd learned to heed or die, and she rolled, coming up facing the wall where the shadow had been. Her gaze scanned the arena as she stretched out her senses. Nothing. No life signs, no indicators of a threat - nothing. She frowned; she hadn't been imagining things had she?

She dove to the side as the Force suddenly sang its warning once more and barely missed being impaled on a long spear as it slammed into the ground where she'd been. The danger fled, trickling away as the presence of the mysterious individual faded, as if deliberately assuring her she was alone once more.

Allana paid the sense little heed as Mila burst into the room, shouting orders she didn't register, her gaze riveted to the spear impaled in the ground. Around the blunt end had been tied an object she'd have recognized anywhere, and the only one in existence. She stepped forward, unmindful of Mila's shouted warning, and stretched out a trembling hand to touch the Djo medallion. It was the medallion her mother had given to Jacen Solo to remind him of his commitment to her. It was the medallion she'd left in Ben Skywalker's care less than four years ago when she'd first come to Hapes.

It signified everything and nothing. Her hopes and dreams, and what could never be.

She jerked her hand away as her fingers touched the cool surface and the flicker of something white - tied to the fine chain - caught her attention. She reached for it just as Mila caught up with her and jerked her away from the spear.

"Your highness, no! It could be a trap."

"Trap?" She echoed the word without really understanding, her gaze focused on the medallion and the white piece of flimsi hanging from it.

Mila's face filled her vision, blocking out the sight. Her voice was low as she spoke. "Allana, I know what that is, remember? I know who had it, but you can't touch it just yet, understand?"

Nodding as she shook off the lethargy induced by shock, Allana turned away from her friend and the spear, doing her best to put it out of her mind as the hazardous material team moved in. She shuddered, thinking about the implications of the message that the medallion alone represented. It was one of two things. A warning, telling her to embrace the old ways or suffer the consequences - or something directly tied to Ben; a warning, perhaps, that he'd be killed if she continued on her quest to better Hapes for males and introduce new ways.

"Clear the area!"

Mila's voice rang loudly through the training salle and a protest went up from the stands where hopeful young men had been jostling for the best seats - and the best position in line to try their luck. Allana ignored it all, only barely registering the shouted command. She didn't countermand it, didn't even try, her focus so solidly inward she was almost completely unaware of her surroundings.

Several of the Royal guard filed in around Allana, taking up guard position at Mila's direction and Allana closed her eyes against the turmoil around her. It didn't help as the noise filtered into her consciousness, and the image of that medallion remained burned into her retinas. The medallion, thankfully, wasn't coated in blood, but the way it had appeared and the method was enough to make her skin crawl. Who had delivered it and why? What message was she supposed to be getter and what did the flimsi say?

She wanted to scream in frustration as Mila had the guards escort her back to her office. There they helped her inside and to her chair, two of them playing servant and finding her water and food, the others taking up positions outside the room. It was the most defensible room in the Palace and she could feel the locations of each of them just outside without concentrating.

Not that she was capable of concentration at the moment. She was shaking, violently, the implications of the "message" running rampant through her mind and coming up with scenario after scenario of things that went from bad to worse and how that medallion had come to arrive here. None of them were comforting and all of them eventually ended with a ransom demand of some kind and Ben's execution. She leaned forward in her chair, covering her face with her hands as she struggled to regain control after the shock.

It wasn't easy.

The better part of the hour it took Mila and her team to run the necessary tests on the items was the time she'd needed to compose herself. When Mila finally formally knocked on the door and requested an audience, her spine straightened automatically and she squared her shoulders. Tilting her head back she took a deep breath, silently telling herself she could do this, and gave permission for her friend to enter.

It took all of her considerable will power not to cringe at the severe, grim lines of Mila's face. Without a word, she knew it was bad.

Mila strode in, nodding to the guards present. They departed, closing the door behind them and leaving Allana with her most trusted confidante. Mila's expression softened and compassion worked its way into her expression. The note and the medallion hung in one hand and Allana's gaze was drawn to them even as Mila's words filled the room.

"It's a trap."

Allana couldn't tear her eyes from the folded piece of flimsi, her fingers twitching as she fought back the urge to reach for it and rip it from Mila's hand. She wanted, _needed_ to know what as on it. She finally found her voice. "Of course it is."

Mila strode towards the desk and placed the medallion on the surface before slapping the piece of paper down on it with a _thwack_, her hand planted in the center of the page. "Of course nothing; why would anyone send _you_ a ransom note for Ben Skywalker - and why now? Aren't his parents a more logical choice?"

"Master Skywalker doesn't have the wealth of the Consortium at his disposal." Allana's composure was slow to return, but return it did. She took a deep, fortifying breath and placed her hands flat against her desk as she rose to her feet. "I'm going after him."

"No."

"You can't stop me Mila. Ben needs me, I can't just sit back and wait-"

"That's what you have to do, Allana." Mila removed her hand from the flimsi. "Read."

Allana didn't retake her seat, the bold scrawl easily visible from where she stood. She read it aloud, managing to keep her voice from shaking. "Stop the reforms or Skywalker dies. Gallinore." She dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "Threats and terrorists have marked my reign since the beginning, why should they stop now?"

"Allana, this is Ben Skywalker we're talking about. He's probably the strongest Jedi who ever lived." Mila's tone was hard, though it held a note of pleading. "If he can't escape them, what makes you think you can rescue him?"

Allana smiled grimly. "Because, Mila, I'm Allana Djo, daughter of Tenel Ka Djo, and the Queen Mother of the Hapan Consortium. I have resources at my disposal few others could bring to bear in this crisis. I have options few Jedi have and recourses they wouldn't consider. Not only am I the Queen Mother, but I am also a diplomat and the ruling voice of the cluster. And no one, but no one, messes with my friends."

Mila regarded her steadily for a long minute, seeing a gleam in Allana's eye that told of what she had in mind. Finally, giving in because she knew she'd never win, she nodded. "Alright; what'd you have in mind?"

Allana's smile was hard, full of malice and lacking any kind of compassion. "Gallinore has been the one to object the most vocally to my reforms and now they dare dictate to me what is to be done in _my_ consortium. They've infringed on my sovereign rights and done the unthinkable." Allana reached out to touch the medallion on her desk. "This marks Ben as my property and they've dared to touch what's mine - an offense punishable by death under the current Hapan law."

"You aren't considering orbital bombardment."

Allana arched her eyebrows. "I was thinking something orbital, but not bombardment."

Mila cocked her head at her Queen, respect plain in her features as she failed to follow her train of thought. "I don't understand, but whatever it is, you sound sure it will work."

"More than sure. Gallinore's only redeeming quality is that it exports its gems. It imports everything else from off planet, _including_ male slaves."

"Interdiction."

"Blockade." Allana's confirmation drew a smile from her bodyguard. "Until Ben is returned to me, Gallinore will face a new restriction on its female population every hour and will be placed under martial law effective immediately. Mila, I want you to go and see that my orders are carried out."

"Me?"

Allana moved from behind the desk. "I trust no one else in this government the way I trust you. You will do what's necessary to ensure that my orders are followed. In one day's time, if martial law is not sufficient incitement to have Ben returned to me - unharmed - I will carry out my threat against the women of the world."

"You're treading a fine line, Allana."

"I've crossed that line. Gallinore must be made an example of so that all will know not to cross their Queen Mother."

Mila bowed and turned on her heel, departing with a steady stride. Her voice was raised as she called forward many of the guards to accompany her and begin the very steps that she hoped would have Allana's desired effect. Allana waited as the door closed, leaving her once again alone, and stepped back to her chair. Free of prying eyes, she sagged into the chair and pulled the medallion to her. She fingered the intricate design, the metal cool under her finger tips as she sought some connection to the man who had kept it through these long years.

Was he still the same Ben Skywalker she remembered in her dreams? Or had he grown a different way than expected, moving beyond where she'd been and where she was now? Was he still the charmer and rogue or had he developed beyond those traits into a man of sophistication and refinement? She hoped not. The Ben Skywalker she'd known and adored as a teenager was the man who continued to haunt her dreams and waking moments. He was the man she missed; the joker and charmer who could make her smile under any circumstance. He was the man she was willing to risk everything she'd built to get back.

A soft, sad smile curved her lips. If that wasn't love, she didn't know what it was.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Word of Gallinore's blockade - and the reason behind it - spread faster than wild fire through the Consortium. Holonewscasters set up shop outside the Palace's gates. Reporters attempted to interview anyone and everyone leaving the palace. Security was increased and a cordon created to allow people and goods to pass unimpeded. One adventurous reporter attempted to smuggle themselves in only to be found out at the gate and dumped unceremoniously out of the cart.

Allana watched the chaos that enveloped her people with an amused tolerance. There were two sides of the story - and then there was hers. Thus far each side knew that Gallinore's blockade had been imposed due to a message the Queen Mother had received. Each knew it had to do with a male. Neither knew _which_ male for certain and speculation was rampant. There was talk of kidnapping - the closest tale to the truth - of the Queen Mother's chosen consort. Talk of a male who had no wish to be consort running for asylum, or of a male who had stolen DNA to create an heir without her permission.

The list continued, growing more ridiculous and outrageous with each new idea.

Allana was startled from her watch by her father's voice. "Watching them gets you nowhere."

She turned from the window. "Neither does sitting at my desk wondering when one will actually break through that security line."

Zekk chuckled softly. "With the guards backed by a couple of Jedi Knights, they're not likely to have gaps. How're you holding up?"

"How do you expect, dad?" She slumped against the wall, out of sight of the window, and rubbed her fingers against her forehead. "It's been twelve hours since I sent my counter demands. Twelve hours." She took a deep breath, lifting eyes that spoke of a silent terror she dared not voice. And a mute appeal.

Zekk stepped closer and pulled her into a tight embrace. She burrowed into his chest, seeking comfort and reassurance in a way she hadn't done since she was a child. She clung to him, drawing strength from his presence. Zekk, for his part, gently stroked her hair. "Things will turn out, Allana. You'll see."

"What if it were Jaina down there, dad? What would you do?"

"The same as you, probably." He chuckled, resting his chin against the top of her head. "I'd move heaven and earth - and then some - to make sure she was alright."

"Is that selfish of me?"

"Selfish?" He echoed the word surprised. "Selfish, Allana? I don't know a single person as un-selfish as you anywhere. You've given up so much for others to benefit."

"And now I'm throwing it all away because of a man." She made a face against his shirt, but didn't relinquish her hold. "I feel like a fool."

"Probably because you are one."

Their eyes met as she jerked away in surprise, stung by his soft remark. But Zekk's gaze held no censure, only understanding. "It's what people do when they're in love, Allana. They make sacrifices that would otherwise seem extreme, they risk everything on a chance or whim; and they say to hell with whomever stands in their way."

She was quiet for a long minute, watching him, mulling over his words and finally voiced her deepest, most despairing question. "What if the man I'm risking all of this for, isn't the one I find?"

"You don't believe that that. Ben Skywalker is still the same brash, outspoken, reckless young man he's always been. The fact that he's in this particular conundrum is proof of it."

"But why's he on Gallinore in the first place? Surely Ben knows that being in the Consortium for any reason - an unattached male regardless of my reforms - is a good way to end up as a part of some Matron's harem."

"Ben's been to the Consortium before, Allana. He has contacts and resources here he's never shared in detail with the council. It's the reason he was chosen to lead these kinds of missions."

She made a face, stepping out of the circle of his embrace and moved back to the window to resume her earlier watchful pose. Zekk joined her, staying out of sight as he leaned against the wall beside the window. Allana kept her gaze on the swarm of holo reporters around the main gate to the Palace. She knew they were secretly hoping to question her but she'd refused. Other than the one official news cast that would be held in just over five hours, she would say nothing to them.

"Am I doing the right thing, dad?"

"You're not doing the wrong thing."

"Mom says I shouldn't wait for Ben."

"Mom says?" Zekk echoed the words surprised. "Since when did Tenel Ka have her say?"

"She visited me last night as a Force ghost. She was worried about the state of the Consortium, about my opinion of Jacen Solo, and my reluctance to even give the impression of attempting to obtain an heir. I think she was really there just to remind me that love wasn't essential when it came to... to..."

"To obtaining an heir." Zekk finished the phrase softly, seeing her heightened color. "Your mother was a very practical woman, Allana, but I think she was forgetting something. She loved Jacen and she got to have him before she chose me as a surrogate. I've never pretended to love her, not even the night you were conceived, and she knew and accepted it. I think she accepted it because of necessity and made the best of it. The other half of that night is that she went back to Jacen. If you give up on Ben and choose another, you don't have that option nor the comfort of knowing, as she did, that love awaits you. I understand your position, Allana, and I respect it. Your mother might believe you need to choose elsewhere, but she has been gone a long time."

Allana turned to look at her father in surprise. "Then you don't think this is an endeavor in foolishness? That going after Ben is a waste of time and resources?"

He chuckled softly. "I think of it as an expression of intent. Once Ben is returned to you, what do you plan to do?"

Allana blushed crimson but somehow managed to hold her father's gaze. "I intend to make him keep his promise."

"Promise?"

"Ben promised that when I was old enough to need a consort, he'd be here to..." she stopped, her face getting impossibly warmer.

"I think I get the idea." Zekk's tone was dry. "I should throttle him for having made such a promise."

"But you won't."

"I see what having him in this situation is doing to you, Allana, and I know from my own experience what pain denied love can bring. I think Ben has suffered enough, knowing he had to wait for you to grow up, and not knowing with certainty that it would be him you would eventually choose. Nothing I could do to him would have any kind of impression."

"Then you'll go collect him once he's released?"

Zekk blinked. "I-" he stopped, examining her shrewdly. "Is this some kind of political thing?"

"_Everything's_ political. By sending you, the Prince Consort, I'm making it perfectly clear as to my intentions. After all, it falls to the previous Prince Consort to educate the one who will be stepping into that role after him."

"In other words, if Isolder was here, it would fall to him."

"Grandpa is great, dad, but he's not you. You know Ben and I trust you to bring him back to me." Her throat closed, cutting off whatever else she'd wanted to say.

Zekk reached out to pull her from the window once more and back into his arms. He hugged her tightly, understanding all too well the feelings she was going through and silently vowed to do everything in his power to bring Ben Skywalker back to his little girl.

* * *

><p>Allana shifted her stance, folding her hands behind her as she calmly gazed at the holorecorders pointed her way. None of her bodyguards were within ten feet, leaving her exposed. Only the knowledge that their Queen Mother was a trained and certified Jedi Knight kept them away. Her gaze was cool, having settled into the dark blue-gray of a stormy winter sky as she regarded the human-vultures perched to hear her every word.<p>

The silence was almost deafening as they waited, breaths held, for her to speak. The wind had died and not a whisper of sound seemed to enter the bubble surrounding her. Allana made a movement with her hand behind her back, and the gate opened un-aided, troops filing out from the barracks to line the walkway between Allana and the reporters.

She strode forward, her stride deliberately purposeful. Image was everything and image would be what her people would be seeing. She stopped, the cape she'd donned for dramatic emphasis swirling about her ankles as it came to rest. She regarded them calmly and then opened her mouth to speak, using the Force to project her voice.

"People of Hapes. Worlds of the Consortium, your Queen Mother commands your silence as our ultimatum to those who have dared touch what is ours are read."

That she held nothing in her hands didn't go unnoted by the watching reporters. Allana continued.

"A blockade has been instigated against the world of Gallinore. Trade is forbidden. Blockade runners will be fired upon without warning. Smugglers attempting to aid them in this deceit will be destroyed. Gallinore had dared to dictate the future of the Consortium. She has dared make demands of us that are not within her rights to make. She has touched what is ours and ours alone and dared demand payment for _his_ return."

There was a collective gasp but Allana forged ahead. She'd written her own speech, one that would shock her people and rally them behind her. It was something she was counting on.

"Yes, people of Hapes, your Queen Mother has chosen a consort and Gallinore has dared to touch him, to seek restitution for his deliverance. We will pay no ransom, no matter the price, for insubordination of this kind cannot go unpunished. It is because of Gallinore that your Queen Mother has not announced her chosen consort. It is because of Gallinore that no heir has yet been revealed. It is because of _Gallinore_ and her blatant disregard for the mark of _my_ property-" Allana pulled the Djo Medallion from behind her back, holding it up so it spun leisurely for the holocameras - "that the Consortium's rules for her Queen Mother have not yet been met!"

She stopped, surveying the cameras and giving them ample time to catch picture of the medallion. She took the opportunity to moderate her tone, shifting it from the scathing rhetoric into a more diplomatically acceptable version. When she spoke again, her voice was even and measured.

"Gallinore has six hours to release Ben Skywalker to the custody of Prince Consort Zekk. If he is not returned - unharmed - and capable of fulfilling his duties as the Queen Mother's consort, Gallinore will face a new restriction every hour until the women of the world will be unable to leave their homes for fear of attack. In one hour, troops will begin landing at all major space ports to secure them completely. An hour after that, martial law will be declared on the planet, an order only _I_ can rescind. At the expiration of the six hours, unilateral searches of all homes, properties, businesses and mines will begin without regard for personal property until Ben Skywalker is returned to me as dictated. The choice is yours."

Allana turned on her heel, cupping the medallion in both hands to wrap the chain about it as she strode back into the palace. Her spine remained rigid, her steps purposeful, giving the image of the monarch everyone hoped to see. Only when the main doors closed, and Allana had gained the dubious sanctuary of her rooms, did she wilt.

She'd debated such harsh counter-demands as she wrote her speech, but image was everything. If anyone thought they could gain the upper hand and take what was hers, she had to stop it now. She thought of her father, already enroute to Gallinore to await the outcome, and mentally crossed her fingers. Now it was all up to Gallinore.

Allana only hoped she hadn't condemned Ben to his death.

* * *

><p>If Allana had hoped the rally her people, her success was more than she'd imagined. She watched, stunned, as they boycotted Gallinore's imports almost to the last person. Even those who had been vocal about the reforms were seen - deliberately in public - to be scorning the produce of Gallinore. Reports from every world began pouring in with shows of support. Hastily organized rallies, denouncement of the local government on Gallinore and the condemnation of their tactics. That Gallinore would chose to interfere with the Queen Mother's sacred duty of obtaining an Heir - an announcement eagerly anticipated throughout the Cluster - had brought them firmly in line behind Allana.<p>

That her choice of Consort happened to be the only son of Jedi Masters Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade dampened some of the spirit. Several nobles of many worlds stating that it was regrettable that the Queen Mother should follow in her mother's footsteps and have obtained a Jedi consort - even one from such an influential and powerful family. Many mourned the fact she had not chosen a consort from an honorable Hapan family, however the fact she had chosen to make the matter public had redeemed her in many eyes. A Queen Mother willing and able to use military force to obtain that which she desired - despite the strange reforms she continually pressed on the people - was a woman to respect.

She was both humbled and buoyed by the show of strength and so wasn't the least surprised when Mila contacted her on a private frequency with reports of uprisings on Gallinore. Allana suspected that Ben would be on his way to Hapes and the Fountain Palace within hours and paced the length of her office willing the transmitter to ring.

It remained stubbornly silent, with no word from her father and no other word from Mila. Word from the ships in the blockade, however, poured back frequently. No ships, beyond the first hour, had tried to leave or land on Gallinore and her fleet found the duty tedious. They didn't object nor attempt to refute her orders, however, with each commander making it plain that they were more than willing to see their duty to their Queen Mother and her future Consort.

Allana was torn between worry and amusement as the hours dragged on and the deadline approached for her to begin imposing sanctions of the female population of Gallinore. The silence from the comm channels was the most unnerving. She didn't expect instant results - she'd learned the value of patience - but every minute that passed brought possible messy conclusions to the forefront of her mind. Ben being killed was the most chilling and the most constant.

What would she do if he died? What could she do? She was still obligated to take a consort regardless of if Ben made it out unharmed. Could she do it? Could she put the welfare of her people ahead of her own personal desires and submit to a purely physical relationship simply to obtain and heir? The thought sent a violent shudder through her system, and she wrapped her arms around her waist to brace herself. She didn't think she could even if it cost her throne.

The knock on her door brought her head up and immediately shifted her position, hiding the fears and self-doubt behind a shield of confidence she truly didn't feel. The door opened after a moment and she blinked, going down on one knee as the toddler who came running in shouted her name.

"'Lana! 'Lana!"

A smile blossomed on her lips as she caught her brother in her arms and hugged him tightly. "Jacen."

"We thought you might be able to use some company."

Allana turned her smile on the woman who'd made her father so happy, the brilliance fading a little. "I appreciate it. The waiting is killing me."

Jacen squirmed in her grip as he squeezed her around the neck tightly and landed a smacking kiss on her cheek with a giggle and innocent smile. "'Lana no sad?"

She couldn't stay sad around her baby brother. "I'm alright, kiddo. Just worried."

"Why?"

"Because dad and your cousin Ben haven't checked in yet."

"Why?"

"I don't know why and that's why I'm sad."

"Why?"

Allana looked helplessly at Jaina who grinned and then grimaced as she shifted her gravid body into a nearby chair and settled in. "Jacen, why don't you give your sister the picture you made her?"

"Oh!" He clapped his hands together and pulled a ragged piece of flimsi from his pocket, thrusting it into her face. "Here, 'Lana. No be sad."

Allana set him down and accepted the flimsi, unraveling the mess to reveal a series of squiggles and lines that made no sense. She ruffled his hair with a smile. It was the thoughts that counted. "Thanks kiddo." her words unconsciously echoed her father's favorite nickname for her. "I needed that."

"Welcom!' Jacen's attention was diverted suddenly by the window and the commotion outside it as someone attempted to cross the security line. He ran to the window, pressing his nose against it as he squealed his delight.

Allana shook her head and regarded Jaina with a grin. "He must be a handful."

"No more than you were, I'm told. Your father's very good with him."

"Do you miss him?"

Jaina smiled faintly, waving for Allana to sit, one eye on Jacen's location. "Not the way you mean."

"The way I mean?" Allana echoed the words surprised. "What way would that be?"

"The way you're missing Ben." Jaina's smile was all understanding. "I _used_ to miss Zekk the way you're now missing Ben - until I agreed to marry him that is."

"I can't get married."

"Taking a consort - and only one - is almost the same thing."

"But not quite. Ben could choose to leave at any time - _if_ he chooses to come at all."

"Ben can be contrary, but I hardly think the gilded invitation you've offered is one he can resist."

Allana rubbed her forehead, leaning forward as she braced her elbows on her knees. "I've offered him nothing, Jaina. The worst part of all of this is that I've had to declare my intentions publically. If he refuses me..." She stopped, taking a deep breath, unable to voice the horrible fear that was gnawing at her insides.

"Allana - look at me."

She did so, certain her defenses were down for the moment and knowing her father's wife could likely read each of her fears easily. More easily than anyone else - all because Jaina had been through them before.

Jaina's expression was solemn and compassionate when their eyes met - another sign of the mellowing of this warrior under her father's attention. "Nothing will happen to Ben. Your father won't let it, Mila won't let it - _you_ won't let it. Ben's choice is a choice he made years ago - he's simply been waiting for you to give him some kind of sign."

"Sign." Allana's laugh was strangled. "I guess he got his sign, didn't he?"

"If you want to call it that."

"What if... what if he turns me down, Jaina?" Allana's voice was a mere whisper, not daring to voice the fear too loudly lest it become reality.

"He won't." Jaina's confidence was bracing, even if it wasn't infectious. "Men who give the object of their affections nicknames seldom - _if ever_ - change their minds about them."

Allana looked at her in surprise. "Did my dad have a nickname for you?"

"Of course."

Allana smiled faintly. Of course he did. Her dad had a nickname for everyone who was important in his life. Her. Jacen - why shouldn't he have had one for the woman who'd held his heart since they were kids?

"Daddy!"

Both women turned to find Jacen slapping his hands against the window, excitedly shouting "Daddy!" over and over again. Allana waved for Jaina to remain seated - it was obvious how much effort it took for her to move - and strode to the window. She crouched with her brother, ruffling his hair and looking through the window.

"Where do you see Daddy, Jacen?"

"Daddy!" Jacen slapped his hands delightedly, never taking his gaze from the figures below.

Allana scanned the crowd. Her father was easy to pick out - his excessive height making him stand out all the more - and gasped, her knees buckling with the sight before her. Jacen stared at his sister in surprise as she slid to the floor beside him, one hand splayed against the window as if in protest. _No._

"Allana? What is it?"

She could no more have answered her step-mother than she could have breathed at that moment. _No,_ the word echoed in her head as much a denial as a plea. What she was seeing... it couldn't be possible. She couldn't have risked so much to gain so little… it wasn't possible.

"'Lana?" Jacen's excitement had ebbed as he reacted to the tension he could feel from his sister. He placed one hand on her arm, uncertain of how he could help, but attempting to despite his age none-the-less.

Allana tore her gaze from the window and the sight before her, trying to deny her senses, to deny what she was seeing. She couldn't be seeing her grim-faced father rushing towards the palace with a coffin-like containment unit. She closed her eyes, fisting her hands against them as if to block out the image.

"Allana?"

She jerked, having forgotten Jaina's presence. She took a deep breath, attempting to still the emotions tumbling through her, the worst of which was guilt. She'd killed him - that could be the only reason for the coffin-like containment unit. Nothing helped as she lifted her head to meet Jaina's concerned look, feeling as if she were going to be physically ill. She swallowed with difficulty trying to get the words out and being unable to find her voice as she feared losing her breakfast on the carpet.

Jacen patted her cheek, trying to help. "Daddy bring gift. He bring box. Ev'thing alright."

A sob broke loose from Allana's lips as she turned back to the window in silent anguish and leaned her forehead against it, trying to regain control. She didn't hear Jaina call Jacen away, nor did she hear his excited chatter as they left the room and her in silence.

Allana didn't know how she knew they left, but a part of her was aware of it and the moment the door closed, leaving her in silence, a single, hot tear traced its way down her cheek.

Her ultimatum had cost her the one anticipation and expectation she'd ever been excited for. It had cost her the one person she felt, truly felt, understood her and her position completely. It had cost her Ben and, for a brief, rash moment she envied him and wanted to join him.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Zekk left the infirmary with a sole intention.

He'd already seen Jaina and Jacen - they're met him at the door - and Jaina had filled him in on Allana's reaction to their approach. He'd spent just enough time reassuring them that Ben wasn't dead - the casket had been for protection only - and was in fact hale enough to demand to see Allana immediately.

Zekk, two doctors, and a heavy sedative and been necessary to convince Ben that he needed a dip in the bacta tank before anything else. That he'd been semi-conscious going in, still fighting to see Allana, boded well for whatever recovery the doctor's planned. Jaina and Jacen had stayed behind to ensure he behaved.

Zekk's strides were long, ground eating steps that took him up the palace stairs to the top level where Allana's office was located. The steps were easy and he took them four at a time without calling on the Force as he stepped purposefully. The longer Allana believed Ben had been injured or was dead, the rasher her reaction would be.

He stopped on the top landing and strode to her office, knocking once. "Allana?"

"Come in, dad."

She sounded composed enough. He frowned. Despite what she sounded like, he could practically _feel_ the desolation she was attempting to hide. Zekk pushed the door open and found her seated at her desk. Calmly. Rationally. As if the scene Jaina had described had never happened. If it hadn't been for the redness in her eyes - or the slight shake of her fingers as she continued to write something, her head down and not having bothered to look up when he'd entered - he would never have known she was upset.

"Jaina told me-"

Allana's head snapped up, her eyes narrowing. "She shouldn't have seen that; I'm sorry."

"You're _sorry_?" Zekk regarded her shocked."For what, Allana?"

"That she saw me break down - that I upset Jacen. It won't happen again."

"Ben's alive, sweetie."

Hope flared for a brief moment in her two-toned gray eyes before she snuffed it out like a candle. She swallowed hard before speaking, her voice admirably even. "I saw the med-unit dad. They're only used to carry the grievously ill or injured or the dead."

"Or prisoners being smuggled out of someplace dangerous and into another equally dangerous territory."

"Hardly conventional."

"Neither is Ben Skywalker." Zekk took the extra couple of steps to her desk and placed his hands down on the top, regarding her carefully. "Ben's alive, Allana. He's in the medical bay - in the bacta tank."

"Will he... is he..." she stopped, bracing herself and began again. "Will he live?"

"Bruises can't kill you."

Her brows snapped together. "Bruises don't get you put in a bacta tank."

"These kind do."

Her inhaled breath was sharp and she placed the stylus she'd been using on the desk. "Internal injuries?"

Zekk nodded, knowing that shielding her from the truth wouldn't get them anywhere. "A punctured lung, broken ribs, some minor tissue damage and a large purple welt on his back that we haven't yet been able to place. Nothing lethal and _nothing_ that will prevent his recovery."

Allana closed her eyes, bowing her head and she struggled for control even as the joyous news penetrated the shock that had enveloped her upon thinking Ben was dead. But he wasn't - he was alive! _Alive!_ And in her palace. She opened her lids to stare at the clenched fists in her lap, the retribution speech she'd been writing all but forgotten on the table. "I have to see him."

"Allana..." Zekk's tone held caution. "He's not exactly in the best of shape."

She pushed to her feet, tears sparkling on her lashed - to her horror - as she met her father's gaze. "I _need _to see him, Dad. He's in this mess because of me. I have to... to make sure he's alright."

"He'll be fine once the bacta does its work. He wanted to come and see you immediately, you know."

Allana paused as she was about to step around her desk, her eyes widening. "He did?"

Zekk nodded, straightening to regard her knowingly. "He did. He was more interested in seeing you than tending his wounds."

"Then how on Hapes..." She stopped and held up her hand before her father answered. "You and Jaina, right?"

"The doctors armed with a heavy dose of tranquilizers - and a little help from a Jedi Knight." Zekk grinned. "He was one determined man."

Man. Allana swallowed hard. The Ben she'd known might be gone. Sure, he'd been a man the last time she'd seen him, but she'd been a kid. One who'd been forced to grow up to take on the role she now wore seemingly effortlessly. It had been hard to learn a lot of what she'd needed to know - and humbling - and suddenly she was afraid to see him. What if he didn't like what she'd become?

"Dad-"

"Ben won't care, sweetie."

"How did you-"

"You're my daughter - and I've been where you are, remember?" He reached out to tug one of the curls that had escaped her braids and smiled teasingly. "We're more alike than you'd like to think."

"Than others would like to think you mean." She smiled, though it was still a slightly nervous action. "Do you really think he won't care?"

"Not at all." Zekk stepped back, allowing her to exit the room first before falling into step beside her in the corridor. "I think Ben will care very much who you've become - and if you're still as compatible as you were four years ago."

"What if we're not?"

"Then you'll always be friends while you each go your separate ways."

She took heart in the quiet conviction in his voice and sped up a little as they descended the stairs. Allana rarely used the turbo lifts and, as a consequence, could still outmatch her father at a foot race. She idly wondered if she could still outmatch Ben or if he'd improved in their years apart. But the fear that things would be different, that things would have changed, was still there. She was a different person than when he'd last seen her and there was no guarantee Ben would like the change. She didn't think she'd handle his rejection well if he so chose.

Zekk reached over to squeeze her shoulder briefly as they descended the last flight down towards the medical bay. "Worrying about what might be gets you nowhere. Let's focus on what is before we go inviting trouble, alright?"

"I'm not worried."

"Then why do you look nervous?"

"Wouldn't you be if it was Jaina?"

The grin Zekk sent her way was amused. "Hardly. If Jaina was in that med bay I'd be running full out thanking the Force that she was there to see me at all. In fact I'm pretty sure I've done that a time or two already."

"So you weren't even the least bit nervous?"

Zekk mulled over the question as they turned down the main hallway to the med bay and unconsciously matched his stride to Allana's suddenly slower pace. He didn't comment on the fact that she seemed reluctant to face that which she desired most, nor that she was avoiding the issue. "Maybe the first time, but I was about half your age when it happened."

"So what - I shouldn't be nervous because I'm older than you were?"

Zekk chuckled. "I'd only known Jaina for about a year or so and she was way too good for me even then - and I knew it."

"They're not even remotely the same circumstance, dad!" Allana's tone was anguished. She stopped in the middle of the hallway and faced at him squarely, just shy of the medical bay entrance. "How can you think they've got anything to do with one another?"

"Because she was a princess, and you're a Queen." Zekk reached out to cup her face in his palm. "And Ben Skywalker isn't worthy of you, Allana."

"What!" She blinked, staring at him dumbfounded. "I thought you _liked_ Ben."

"I do." Zekk dropped his hand with a rueful smile. "That doesn't mean I think he'd worthy of my little girl. I know he loves you, Allana - but don't hate me for thinking that no man will ever be worthy of you, no matter how much I like him. Ben Skywalker might be his father's son, but that doesn't mean he's good enough for you. He's good _for_ you; he makes you smile and laugh. He brings a light to your eyes that's been missing for a long time, but as far as I'm concerned he'll need to work for his whole life to prove that he's good enough for my little girl."

"I'm hardly a little girl."

He smiled faintly. "In most ways, no, but in others, you are. You know what you want, Allana, and now that it's suddenly in reach you're having second thoughts. That's pretty normal, you know."

"I'm not having second thoughts." Gray eyes flashed with indignation. "If I was having second thoughts I'd still be sitting in my office writing Ben's eulogy!"

"Rather than cooling your heels in the corridor outside the medical bay where he's in a bacta tank, itching to see you?"

"I'm not cooling my heels!"

"Then what do you call this, Allana?" Zekk made a wide motion with his arms, indicating the hallway and the medical bay door barely feet away. "This sure doesn't look like the med bay to me."

"I'm just…"

"Just what?"

"Just…" she stopped, staring at him and then pushed angrily away from the wall. "I'm just trying to piece together how my _father_ can say Ben's not good enough for me in one breath and then call me a coward in the next!"

"Easy." He grinned, suddenly and boyishly. "It makes you act on what you really want instead of listening to what everyone else thinks."

"Even though you think Ben isn't good enough for me."

"In my books no one is good enough for you and you'll never _find_ anyone good enough for you, Allana."

"How can you say that when Ben…" She trailed off, completely at a loss for his sudden frankness. "But you said before that Ben was good for me."

"And so he is - or rather, would be if you'd put the poor guy out of his misery and visit him already." Her eyes slid to the door and her nervousness began to reappear. Zekk placed one hand on her shoulder and squeezed, drawing two toned gray back to emerald. "Would you like some advice?"

Her smile was weak, belying just how much she was putting on this reunion. "Would I ever."

"Be yourself, brat. That's who Ben left behind and that's who he wanted to see when he came with me. He's not expecting the Queen Mother, or the Heir to Hapes. He's expecting to see Allana Djo, the girl behind the mask that captivated him back at the academy and promised him a fair hearing when she came of age. You don't have to be more than you are."

She let out a shaky breath, accompanied by just as shaky of a smile. "I'll remember that, dad. Thanks."

Zekk stepped back, leaving her plenty of room as she moved towards the door, and silently wished her luck as she squared her shoulders and went to meet the man she'd never forgotten.

* * *

><p>The lights were dim as Allana entered the med bay, stopping inside the door to allow her eyes to adjust. Her palms were sweaty and she absently rubbed them against her thighs as she looked around. The waiting room was deserted, not even a med-droid in attendance, and Allana knew it was likely one of her father's preparations.<p>

There would be no record of this reunion, no memory other than her own and Ben's.

Figures moved in the darkness and she jumped, only to exhale in relief as her step-mother and brother came into focus. Jaina's smile was all understanding. "He bullied you into coming, didn't he?"

Allana laughed, but it was a choked sound. "I was going to come on my own."

"Then he made you step through that door."

The young Queen nodded. "I'm glad he did. Where's Ben?"

Jaina nodded towards the back room. "The doctors are watching the monitors in the other room, but you'll be alone with him."

"Would you..." Allana hesitated. "Would you come with me?"

"I know your nervous, but you won't thank me for being there later. At least this way your reunion can be just that - without the prying eyes of your public."

"What if he's not-"

"Allana."

"I know, I'm being silly." She exhaled shakily. "Dad says I should be myself."

"It's good advice. Ben doesn't know you're coming." Jaina's eyes sparkled with suppressed mischief. "It'll do him good to be surprised."

That alone eased Allana's fears like nothing else could. Ben would be just as unbalanced by this reunion as she. Jaina moved beyond her, squeezing her shoulder for luck before exiting the medical bay. Once more alone in the darkness, Allana squared her shoulders and stepped to the doorway leading into the room where the bacta tanks were kept.

The soft beeping of the monitors drew her eyes unerringly to the only bacta tank in use and the figure held suspended in the healing liquid.

Ben's back was to her, the almost black bruise that spread from the top of his shoulders to disappear into his shorts made her cringe. Whatever they'd done to him, he'd spent a lot of time on his back. She stepped into the room.

A reflection off the glass must have caught his attention because he turned in the bacta, an annoyed look in his eyes, before stopping dead. His blue eyes widened in shock and a long path of bubbles escaped from around his breather. As if pulled by an invisible string, Allana moved to the side of the bacta tank and pressed her palms against it. Ben's hands mirrored the movement immediately and she finally smiled.

"Hey stranger."

His fingers curled in response, a frustrated noise coming from behind his mask.

Allana shook her head. "You can't come out yet, Ben; you're a mess."

He made a motion, indicating he wished to speak and she shook her head. "Not yet. It's not often I get to have you at my mercy - especially my _silent_ mercy."

Ben's eyebrows almost hit his hairline, but Allana didn't comment. Instead her eyes roamed over his features, taking in the details of the damage done.

There was a series of five healing slashes across his left cheek - some of the tissue damage her father had spoken about - and the front of his body was covered in series of fives. Allana suspected a whip of some kind, designed to inflict pain but leave no scars. A vicious blue, green and black bruise covered the left side of his chest - the punctured and broken ribs possibly? - and a longer, deeper barely healed scar was visible by his belly button. Another gift from his captivity or something else?

Looking beyond his injuries, her gaze having ended at his toes, she took him in a second time, this time seeing him as she hadn't before.

He was as toned as she remembered, all lean muscle and no fat. Whatever they'd been doing to him hadn't damaged his excellent physique. Strong powerful thighs and a toned abdomen. No defined muscles, but then, Ben had never been one to go that far for long. He flexed obligingly as she moved her gaze upwards, letting her know that he was aware of her inspection, and her eyes drank in the defined lines of his arms and chest.

Finally, her gaze returned to his face.

New lines had appeared at the sides of his eyes, he looked like he hadn't slept or shaved in days. His hair curled down over his ears and the unruly mop ended just above his shoulders, but he was everything she remembered and more. A shave, a haircut and a few hours in bacta to heal the damage and he'd be _exactly_ as she remembered.

Their eyes met again and his held a sardonic inquiry she had no problem understanding. Her lips curved into an appreciative smile. "When you get out of there, Skywalker, I'll be right here waiting to tell you exactly how much I'm enjoying the view."

He blinked, obviously surprised by her remark, and Allana felt a flush sweep up her face. She smacked the glass, making him wince.

"Serves you right. You're late responding to my invite, Ben. I don't know if I should chew you out or... or... or kiss you senseless!"

He held up two fingers, indicating his choice of preference, and made her laugh. The smile that curved his lips wasn't visible, but she could tell by his eyes that he was as delighted to be there as she was to have him. Flattening her palms against the glass once more opposite his she stared at their hands for a brief moment before looking back up.

"When you're healed, Ben, we'll talk. But not until your healed. I'm leaving orders that you be sedated if you even _think_ about getting out of that tank before those bruises are nothing but a memory. And no arguments." Her tone was sharper than intended. "I'm not going anywhere."

Ben saluted, his movements sluggish in the liquid. Then, to her surprise, he placed one hand over his heart and pointed at her.

Irrational tears flooded her eyes as she mirrored the movement and said the words she knew he needed to hear. "I promise."

Ben closed his eyes, nodded, and then seemed to deflate. Alarmed, Allana looked to the monitors. Finding nothing, she frowned and looked back to him. It took her a moment before she realized that Ben must have been exerting an incredible amount of Force control to be conscious as long as he had been. A soft smile curved her lips and she shook her head.

Different day.

Different year.

Different planet.

Same Ben.

* * *

><p>The rest of the day passed in a blur, Allana's only official act that of halting the punishments to be extracted on Gallinore. She cited the reason for the temporary cessation as promising news of Ben Skywalker's current condition and whereabouts. When asked to elaborate, she declined with grace and retreated to the Palace, leaving the newsmongers to speculate among themselves as to what "news" she could possibly have obtained.<p>

Zekk's return was also speculated upon and most drew conclusions - the wrong ones - about him being the messenger of whatever news the Queen Mother had received.

It was later that night before Allana was able to check in on Ben's progress only to be told that he would be healed by morning. He would need to spend the rest of the night in the bacta tank to achieve the level of healing that she required.

Confident that Ben wouldn't simply show up at the door to her quarters - no matter how much a part of her wanted him too - she turned in after a brief visit with her father and Jaina. Jacen was already tucked away in bed and she was distracted enough that when she finally made it to her quarters she was unable to remember anything beyond the tolerant smiles Jaina and her father had exchanged as they'd shooed her out the door to bed.

Come to think of it, they'd practically ordered her to bed.

Allana frowned, rubbing her forehead as she struggled to piece together her day and couldn't. The only memories that stuck out were of seeing the coffin that had carried Ben into the Palace - and seeing Ben in the bacta tank. With a sigh, she gave up, concentrating instead on the need to sleep and regain her equilibrium. Tomorrow, from what the doctor told her, Ben would be free of the tank and she'd be able to see him for real.

Anticipation colored her movements as she readied herself for bed.

It was no surprise that, as she drifted off to sleep, the image of Ben in the bacta tank stayed with her only to dissolve into memories from her academy days. As a consequence, she slept better than she had - and yet worse - in months.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The following morning, Allana settled behind her desk feeling refreshed and focused enough to concentrate on her work. She had a speech to write, the day to day conflicts of her position to resolve and orders to issue to her military with regarding to Gallinore and her citizens.

Gallinore.

She frowned, leaning back in her chair and turning it slightly so she could look out one of the windows. What was she going to do about them? She had what she wanted, but they would likely continue to oppose her. One of their biggest complaints wasn't her reforms, but her neglect in following pre-established protocols for the Queen Mother. In particular the taking of a consort and obtaining a heir.

Her cheeks heated as she remembered her mother's visit and advice and quickly pushed the thoughts away. First she had to determine what - if anything - remained between her and Ben. She'd have to see if he could accept the changes in her as she would accept whatever changes in him.

"Long time no see, Twitch."

Allana's head snapped around, a delighted smile lighting her face before could check it. "Ben!"

_He'd shaved._ It was the first thought that ran through her mind as her eyes lit on his face.

He stood in the doorway to her office, leaning casually against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest and his feet crossed at the ankles. He was dressed in a loose fitting shirt that had the sleeves rolled back over his forearms and a pair of the most disreputable shorts she'd ever seen. She wrinkled her nose and spoke without thinking.

"Is that all they could find for you to wear?"

"At least they're clean."

Allana remained seated, cocking her head at him. The desk before her reminded her of where she was - and who might be watching. With a flick of her wrist, she used the Force to close the privacy shades on the windows and straightened her posture. Despite her security sweeps, there was always the possibility of a recorder or transmitter being missed.

"It is good to see you are healed, Jedi Skywalker."

Ben blinked, surprised by the sudden formality in her tone. "Something amiss?"

"Would you like to join me?"

"I'm good where I am, thanks." His regard turned assessing, and then understanding dawned in his eyes. Her station. The Office. The lowering of the privacy shades. No one had ever said Ben Skywalker couldn't take a hint. A mischievous twinkled entered his eyes. "Perhaps you can help me solve a mystery, Queen Mother."

"I will do my best. It would only be proper."

"Indeed." Ben's posture didn't change, but Allana suddenly had the distinct feeling of being hunted. "Then perhaps you can confirm this rumor I keep hearing in Hapan space."

"Rumors are hardly credible, Jedi Skywalker."

"This one is as unique as the object of it." His assurance was almost lazy, directly at odds with her formal tones and postures. "It would seem there's something of a hellcat in the Palace."

"Indeed?"

"So the rumor says. Only this rumor also says that this particular young lady never grew up on Hapes, has a spine of steel and a tongue so sharp it draws blood."

"Really."

He nodded this time, his eyes glinting. "The rumor also mentions something about sass."

Allana felt heat gather at the base of her throat and begin to climb upwards. "I am not aware of anyone in the palace to matches your description, Jedi Skywalker."

"Neither was I," his assurance was easy. "That is, until this young lady visited me in the medical ward yesterday afternoon and proved the rumors true."

The blush that climbed into Allana's cheeks burned hotly. He thought she'd been sassing him? Well, she supposed privately, she _had_ been to some degree. "Is this a problem?"

Ben finally straightened from the doorway and stepped inside. It was the familiar walk he'd always had and lacked none of the appeal she remembered. She was so fascinated by it that she didn't consciously register that he'd moved until he was standing almost directly in front of her. He bent, his hands coming down on her wrists over the arms of her chair as he brought his face close to hers. Her breath caught at the gleam in his eyes - eyes that were the same shade of crystal blue she remembered and no less intense.

"Only," he told her softly, "if that sassy lady decided to run and hide."

"I am not sassy."

A smile curved his lips even as his gaze dropped to hers. "No?"

Allana shook her head, feeling as if she were in some kind of dream. "No."

"A shame. That sassy lady made me a promise - one that happens to mirror one I made to her a lifetime ago."

"Four years isn't a life time."

"Isn't it?" His gaze returned to hers, searching for something she didn't understand. "Then why are you for formal, Twitch?"

"Anyone could be watching or listening."

"Then let them watch."

One hand released her wrist. It rose between them before gently, softly, moving to touch her cheek. Allana was frozen under that touch; scarcely able to breathe so ghostly did it feel. She was terrified she was going to wake up at any second to find this was just another product of her overactive imagination.

Ben's fingers traced the outline of her face, skimming her skin with a whisper soft caress that left anticipation in their wake. He explored her with his touch as she'd explored him with her eyes the night before - only his fingers never left her face. His intention was immediately clear when his thumb and forefinger grasped her chin and tilted it slightly. "I made you a promise some years ago, Allana. I'd like very much to kiss you right now."

The movement of his thumb gently brushing over the tip of her chin was almost hypnotic and Allana's breath hitched. "I.. seem... to recall threatening to kiss you senseless." Her admission was also a challenge, daring him to call her on it.

He smiled at the breathless catch in her words. "Such sass. I knew there was truth to that rumor."

"Ben-"

"Hush, Allana."

She wasn't given the choice as Ben's lips settled over hers.

Sensations flooded her awareness. The warm moistness of his lips; the caress of his hand as it slid up her jaw line to cup the back of her head; the strength in his fingers as his other hand slid about her waist and lifted her from her chair; the definition of the muscles in his chest as she was pulled flush against him; the texture of his hair as her hands slid into it up to his cheeks and she cradled his head; the taste of him as he deepened the kiss - and she let him.

"Your Majesty, I- Oh!"

Allana was barely aware of the presence of another person so enmeshed in the sensations, in the _rightness_ of Ben's kiss that she failed to react immediately. When she did, pulling away with a dismayed sound, it was to the door closing behind the individual who had come to speak with her. She stumbled back, her knees buckling as she encountered her chair. Her heart was racing, her limbs quaking - she'd never been so affected by a simple kiss in her life!

"Allana?"

She lifted trembling fingers to her lips. They felt swollen and ached, as if the loss of Ben's against them were of paramount importance. Swallowing with difficulty, she lifted her gaze to Ben. It took all of her self control to look him in the eye and not launch herself back into his arms. Despite the humming that seemed to permeate her body - another sensation that had been lacking whenever she'd been kissed before - there was also the first tingling of fear.

Ben's hands had curled over the edge of her desk, as if he were restraining the urge to reach for her. "Are you alright?"

She nodded, but wasn't certain that was true. Her world felt as if it had just been upended and all because of a challenge she'd thoughtlessly issued - and Ben hadn't been inclined to pass up. "I think so."

"If it helps, at least the rumor will be partially true this time."

She blinked. "Pardon?"

He nodded towards the door where it had closed behind the intruder. "The rumor that's bound to start because of that woman."

Allana closed her eyes and rubbed her hands over her face in an attempt to find the equilibrium that had deserted her the moment Ben's lips had touched hers. "Rumor. Right. I suppose it's no worse than any of the others."

"Others?"

Ben didn't sound pleased. She dropped her hands and leaned back in her chair to look at him. "It's been a long four years, Ben."

"A lifetime."

She didn't say anything to his soft confirmation.

Regret instantly replaced whatever else had been shining in his eyes and his smile turned rueful. "I shouldn't have kissed you."

"You didn't like it?"

"I liked it too much." He sighed, running one hand through his hair in obvious frustration. "Despite evidence to the contrary, I didn't come in here with the intention of kissing you, Twitch."

The sound of her familiar nick name on his lips eased the tension between them somewhat - but not completely. Allana was painfully aware that the kiss had irrevocably altered things between them. "Then what did you intend?"

"I've missed you; I was hoping for a hug."

"A hug."

He nodded, his boyish features taking on an almost comical yearning expression. "A hug. It's been four years - surely that wasn't too much to ask."

Allana laughed, her nervousness and fear easing, and she offered him a grin. "I suppose not. I wish I'd been able to hug you last night."

Their eyes locked with her reminder of their meeting last night and her smile faded. Ben's voice was loud in the silence, but in reality barely more than a whisper. "Me too. I'd have given anything to get rid of that glass."

"So?"

He cocked his head at her.

"Do you still want your hug?"

Something flared in his eyes for a moment before cautious optimism took its place. "Are you still willing to give it?"

Allana pushed herself out of her chair and took the step necessary to get within arm's reach, and slid her arms around his broad shoulders. Ben stiffened for a fraction of a second, taken aback by her deliberate _physical _ answer, before sliding his arms around her waist. Her head came to rest on his shoulder and he buried his face in the warrior braids that still decorated her head.

It was a different sort of contact than the kiss, more restrained, and Allana was aware that Ben remained half-seated on her desk. He didn't pull her flush against him, didn't allow more than their upper bodied to come in contact, and a part of her mourned the innocence of their previous relationship that was now lost forever.

Ben and the kiss they'd shared had altered things completely and she didn't have a clue how to ease them; how to make them right. This Ben had subtly changed - the Ben she'd known would never have outright kissed her. He'd had the chance, but had asked, planned and waited only to respect her decision when she'd denied him. Then again, the Allan he'd known would never have issued such a challenge as the one she'd given him in the medical bay.

The question now became; where did they go from here since they couldn't go back?

Allana was reluctant to end the hug despite the sudden awkwardness she felt in his arms. It was an awkwardness born of their situation and she desperately wanted to somehow jump over it; to eliminate it. More than anything, she wished they'd done this first - before he'd kissed her - so she could have simply relished being in his arms and not worried about what came next.

Ben, however, seemed to notice a shift in her posture and he pulled back far sooner than she would have liked. With gentle hands, he unwound her arms from around his neck and put her away from him.

She retreated, knowing it for what it was, to the windows covered in the privacy shades and struggled with the tense silence that had descended between them. All she could think about was that kiss - and the perverse knowledge that she'd been right. Ben's kiss hadn't been a disappointment.

The silence stretched between them and Ben finally rose to his feet. "I guess I should go."

Despite the situation, it was the last thing she wanted. Taking a deep breath and forcing herself to face him - something she'd never thought would have been necessary - she pulled the experiences of the last four years around her like a cloak. Drawing on the reserves of strength and determination that was the epitome of her rule, she spoke her request in a voice that didn't shake. "Please stay."

"I don't think I should."

Her lips tilted into a ghost of a smile. "I wouldn't ask you to if I didn't want you to."

"Or you could make it an order?"

Allana shook her head. "You're not one of my subjects - ordering you would have little good."

"You sure about that?"

Where before his words would have been taken for teasing, there was something in his tone that was so serious she couldn't laugh. Instead she nodded. "Yeah. I am. Ordering you around might be fun, and you might be _inclined_ to listen for a while, but you're not obligated to. You'd still be choosing to follow those orders."

"Or disinclined to risk your wrath," his eyes twinkled with the first vestiges of humor. "I hear the Queen Mother's a real force to be reckoned with."

"So the rumor says."

"Rumors of your making?"

"Hardly. I'm the last person who wants those kinds of things flying around. You can thank Mila for that."

"She's still alive?" Ben arched his eyebrows in comical disbelief. "And here I thought you would have strangled her inside the first week."

"That's the Ben I remember." She told him with a laugh. "Trust me, it was tempting; but she's got her uses. I take it dad found you, not Mila?"

Ben nodded, shadows clouding his gaze. "I wasn't sure if anyone would. I figure I'd been given up for dead."

"You were." Her throat closed and she had to look away.

"Did you-"

"Never." Her vehement response was accompanied with clenched fists - but she couldn't look at him and keep her composure - so she didn't. "Never. But you were missing for so long they had to do something and we didn't know… they didn't…" she stopped, taking a moment to regain her poise. "There wasn't any information on where you were or what you'd been doing. There was nowhere to start looking. There was nothing I… nothing we could do."

Ben's hands slid over her shoulders, hesitating for a moment before sliding around them and pulling her back against his chest. Allana leaned into him, clutching his forearms with her fingers, needing the feel of him - and knowing he knew she did - to remind her that he was there. That he wasn't a dream. That everything she'd ever wanted was within her reach - except she didn't know how to grasp it.

Or if Ben wanted her to.

"You found me eventually."

She closed her eyes, feeling the sting of tears behind them. "I would have torn Gallinore apart to find you, Ben, but I couldn't be there. I wanted to, I-"

"It's alright." He squeezed gently, nuzzling her hair. "I understand."

"Do you?"

He nodded. "I do. Remember when you left the academy to take up your crown?"

Her laughter was slightly choked. "Remember? My memories of those days are all that keep me going sometimes."

"I told you I was the one person who could understand the position you'd be accepting, Twitch," his voice held a note of admonishment. "That hasn't changed."

"I have."

"Have you?" She could hear the smile in his voice. "Not the parts that matter to me."

Allana eased out of his hold reluctantly and he let her go, backing off as she turned to face him. "You don't know me anymore, Ben, and I don't know you. I don't know what I was thinking when I thought we could just… pick up where we left off."

"You were thinking the same thing I was," he told her honestly. "That our friendship is timeless."

"And now?"

"Has it really changed?"

"You know it has." She paced away, putting space between them. That's they'd been interrupted - and their visitor had been _surprised_ - had been all the proof necessary to prove they were as private as they would ever get within her palace. "The Allana you knew would never have let you kiss her, Ben."

"The Allana I knew would have," his correction brought her up short. "If she'd trusted herself enough to make a level headed decision after wards. The only reason you never let me kiss you before is because you had to make a decision with regards to all of this."

She didn't need him to gesture to encompass the palace and everything in it to know what he was talking about - but he did anyway.

"I made my choice."

"And now you trust yourself." His eyes twinkled with appreciation that wasn't only for her physical form despite the deliberate way it swept her - the same way she'd looked at him in the bacta tank. "You've grown up - had to - and become the woman you needed to be. That's not a bad thing."

A blush swept across her cheeks at the blatant perusal and she had an absurd urge to cross her arms over her chest. The heat in his gaze was something new - not unwelcome but certainly unexpected. "The woman you were hoping to find, is that it?"

"Don't be deliberately obtuse, Twitch."

"I'm not!"

"No?" He sounded exasperated - and looked it. "Then why are you trying to put up more obstacles between us? Are you so angry with me that you'd deliberately pick a fight?"

She flinched.

"I see you are." He sighed, shaking his head in frustration. "You're determined to stay that way, aren't you?"

"I'm not angry with you."

"Disappointed? Frustrated? Whatever you call it, there's hurt there, Allana. I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner."

"It's not your fault. You had a mission-"

"It could have waited."

"They would have sent someone else."

"And you couldn't send daddy to my rescue?"

"I would have come myself if I could have. I _wanted_ to go!"

"I'm glad you didn't."

Her mouth dropped open in shock - it was as if he's slapped her. "_Excuse_ me?"

"The women who were holding me were _not_ nice."

"Oh _really_?" She glared at him. "I wouldn't have noticed by the wounds you were sporting."

"Did you really want to see me trussed to a rack and bleeding from those cuts?"

Her color vanished, draining from her face.

Ben didn't relent, his tone remaining even, but his body tensed as if remembering the tortures he'd been through. "Did you really want to see the whips and chains? The bloodied rags, spines and spikes; the first aid station where they would patch me up piece by piece and begin again, intent on breaking me? Did you really want to see the bodies of the unfortunates that had come before me, shredded in ways they were going to-"

"_Stop!_" She slapped her hands over her ears, his words having painted a picture of horrors that blossomed all too easily in her mind's eye. He didn't continue, but he didn't have to. She filled in what he didn't say from the lines in his posture, the evidence that had been on his body the previous night. Her knees buckled and she staggered, catching the edge of her desk as she fought to stay upright.

He'd been missing for seventeen months. Almost a year and a half - a year and a half in which he'd been trapped by sadists who'd only kept him alive because of his tie to her. Her eyes closed, tears burning behind her eyelids. He'd endured that because of her.

"Now do you see why I didn't want you there?" His voice was closer than before, carrying none of the harshness. "It's not because I didn't think you could handle it; it's because I knew you'd think you were responsible for it."

"Aren't I?" Her eyes opened, his countenance blurred from the tears on her lashes. Only Ben could make her cry - she hadn't cried about anything else since leaving the academy. "It's my fault they kept you alive for so long."

"Then I'm grateful."

"They were going to kill you!"

"They didn't."

"Because of me." She inhaled deeply. "They didn't kill you because of me."

He nodded.

"So what - they decided to torture you instead? How is that better?"

"I'm alive, Twitch. Anything is better than the alternative."

There was no way to argue that, but the thought of what he'd been through, what he'd _endured_ because of her- "Why don't you hate me?"

"I could never hate you."

"I think it'd be very easy to hate me if I were in your position."

"You kept me going, Allana." He moved closer once more, his gaze searching her. "Until they took the Djo medallion I was on my own in your backyard and you didn't even know it. Once it was gone… I knew you'd come after me."

"You should hate me, Ben."

"Never." He echoed her earlier vehemence. "Not even if you ran me through with your lightsaber."

A weak smile slid across her lips as she was able to blink back her tears. "It's been tempting sometimes."

"Likewise." His smile mirrored hers. "You can be a stubborn woman, Twitch."

"More stubborn than you know. Gallinore didn't stand a chance once the medallion was used as a part of their ransom demand."

"Speaking of that - I'd like to get it back."

She stiffened, bracing for his response. "About that…we need to talk."

He arched his eyebrows. "About which part? You gave me that medallion, remember? I'm kind of attached to it."

"And the meaning behind it?"

"That too."

Allana blushed at his frank, easy response, unable to help herself. "I wouldn't be so hasty. There's a reason I was able to find you so quickly."

"You blockaded Gallinore." He grinned appreciatively. "Your dad told me."

"I didn't just blockade Gallinore, Ben." She took a deep breath. "I announced to the Consortium that with you on planet it was the _only_ reason there's been no formal contract between myself and another male."

Ben stared at her, not seeming to understand what it was she was saying, and Allana's color deepened. She couldn't hold his gaze, and she turned back to the window. Struggling with the need to tell him, the need to explain what exactly was happening, yet fighting with the embarrassment of the questions she knew would follow, the silence that stretched between them was once again tense.

"I don't understand."

"How could you?" The words came out on a choked half-laugh. "You're not the Queen Mother. Despite the time you've spent in Consortium space, I doubt you've researched the restrictions my position has placed on me."

"What kinds of restrictions?"

"Various," there was no intention to keep it vague, but the word popped out before she could stop it.

"And taking complete control of the Consortium directly hasn't given you the authority to change these?"

"I only wish it were that simple." A soft sigh escaped from her lips. Her hand reached out to clutch the fabric of the privacy shade, her knuckles whitening. Behind her, Ben shifted and she could picture him getting comfortable on the edge of her desk. Funny - there were chairs in her office by no one ever seemed inclined to use them. "I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, Ben, but there's a lot more to this than I first anticipated."

"Four years in is a little late to be having second thoughts, don't you think?"

"It's the perfect time to be having second thoughts."

"I doubt your people would support you abdication after this mess," he told her honestly. "You've proven quite a bit in willing to take on Gallinore to get what you want, Allana. Hapans respect strength, and you've not only got that in spades, but proven it."

"You think so?" She still couldn't look at him as she struggled to tell him exactly _why_ things were so convoluted. "I don't feel very brave right now."

"Those who are never do."

"Spouting philosophy?" The look she slanted his way was surprised and she couldn't stop it. "That's something new."

"Allana…" He stopped and tried again. "Just answer me one question, okay?"

"Just one?"

"Just one - for now."

She took a shaky breath. "If I can."

"You can - what does all of this have to do with the medallion?"

_Everything. _

_Nothing. _

The words flashed immediately through her mind and she barely stopped a near hysterical laugh. Squaring her shoulders, she told him in a low and even voice exactly what she'd done - but she didn't look at him. "I announced to the Consortium that _you_ were my choice for Consort, Ben. If you wear the Djo medallion - if you're even seen with it.." Her hand clenched even more tightly around the edge of the privacy shade and she didn't see the reaction her words had on him.

"If I'm ever seen with it they would assume I'd accepted the position."

Nodding, she forced herself to swallow, to get moisture into her mouth, and continued. "I know what I announced to my people, Ben, but I never wanted to trap you here. I never wanted to force you to stay."

"Do you _want_ me to leave?"

"No."

"Then why are you- Dammit, Allana, look at me!"

She tried. She really did. The managed to get her head halfway around before her courage failed her.

Ben's hands landed on her shoulders and she was suddenly spun in place. Her eyes jumped to his, blue meeting stormy gray, and she was caught. Ben's hands slipped upwards to cup her face as he searched her expression and her gaze. His hands were firm, denying her escape. "Are you scared of me?"

"No."

"Then what are you hiding? Why are you pushing me away?"

Allana didn't have an answer he would like. "It's been several years, Ben. You don't know me anymore."

"I know you well enough." Pain flickered his crystal orbs. "You haven't changed that much."

"How can you be sure?"

"You came after me."

Silence descended between them. Allana wanted to believe him, to fall into the old familiar routine, but even as the urge rose, she knew they couldn't. She'd come too far, changed too much, for it to be possible. She'd matured, grown. Her feelings for him had changed from girlish infatuation into something he might not want to accept - despite his pledge and actions thus far. She didn't know. The only thing she did know was that even if she'd wanted to, she couldn't be the Allana he remembered.

Ben must have seen something in her expression. "There's more to it than that, isn't it?"

Allana didn't respond. Couldn't. She was way out of her depth, unused to physical coercion; unused to the feelings that were sweeping through her system. Unused to _wanting_ to be in the position she now found herself in. Never before had she been inclined to simply watch and wait for what came next.

"Nexu got your tongue, Twitch?" Calloused pads skimmed over her cheeks, making her shiver. "You usually hold your own better than this."

"No." Her hands came up to cover his, to still the caresses that were stealing her ability to think. "I can't… Ben, I-"

"Can't what?" His fingers linked with hers, his thumbs brushing across the backs of hers but not relinquishing the gentle hold on her face. As if he was afraid she'd turn away from him again - or worse, run.

She remained silent to his inquiry, unable to voice what it was that refused to coalesce in her mind. She didn't know what exactly it was she couldn't do, but she knew whatever was floating in his gaze was probably a bad idea.

"Can't what, Allana? Be near me? Have me around? Didn't you sink that idea when you announced me for your choice of consort?"

"You don't have to accept."

The look he gave her spoke volumes she didn't even try and interpret. "Why not?"

"Why would you? You said it yourself - it's been a lifetime." She inhaled deeply, exerting a firm pressure on his hands and removing them from her face. Ben's grip loosened reluctantly, his hands lowering with hers, but not releasing. "Don't you think you should get to know me before you commit yourself to something?"

He laughed softly, shaking his head. "I've been wondering what you'd be like now that you're all grown up, Allana, and I can't say I'm disappointed. You have a point, but if that's what you believe, then why did you use it as a reason to blockade Gallinore?"

"For a chance." She stepped backwards and stopped, her heel coming into contact with the window in her attempt to put some distance between them.

"A chance."

Nodding, she knew he'd see the honesty in her eyes. "Yes, a chance. A chance to find out if your promise would be kept; a chance to find out if you were still the man I believed you to be and a chance to find out… to… to…" She couldn't say it; couldn't tell him of all the sleepless nights, the nightmares or the driving fear that had been her constant companion these past months since his disappearance. It was too soon with too many unknowns. She colored, unable to complete her sentence.

Ben's expression remained carefully neutral. "Then you want a chance to get to know me again?"

She nodded again.

"Then promise me something."

"If it's in my power to give."

"It is." He smiled faintly, carefully disengaging their locked fingers. "Promise me you won't avoid me - that you'll let me get to know _you_ and not just the Queen Mother everyone else sees."

"I promise."

He paused for a moment, nodded, and stepped away. "Until later then."

"Where are you going?"

His grin was back, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "I was thinking of taking a nap. Don't worry - I won't leave the palace."

Allana watched him leave before leaning back against the wall and tilting her head back. Her heart was racing, she felt flushed and breathless and her stomach jumped in ways that had never happened with Ben before. But then, Ben had never kissed her before - or looked as if he were going to take the liberty a second time.

Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to focus, to concentrate beyond the nerve wracking encounter. If she'd had any doubt about her feelings for Ben - physically - they'd just been obliterated. She would get to know him, regardless of the intense physical pull he had on her senses, and try to discover in just how many other ways he'd changed. And for him to discover how she'd changed.

Deep inside, however, she had a sneaky suspicion it wouldn't matter. Ben was still fundamentally Ben, the same young man she'd loved as a girl and the man she loved even now. All that remained would be to learn if he could accept her for who she had become and not what she was.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Your Majesty - is it true you've found your consort?"

"Is it true Ben Skywalker has been rescued from Gallinore, your Majesty?"

"Your Majesty - what do you have to say about-"

"Do you have anything to add to the accusation-"

"That. Is. Enough." Allana looked across the gathered holo reporters, her expression hard and unforgiving. She'd stood in the center of the maelstrom for as long as she was able listening to the ugly rumors being thrown her way and their need for confirmation. She'd withstood it stoically - to react would have given them fodder - but the last comment about accusations turned her stomach.

Ben had left her saying he would see her later. How much later, she didn't know, but the official announcement of his recovery couldn't be postponed. Not with the rumor that she'd been in her office with him - and kissing no less! - already flying around the palace. Her discussion with Ben had eaten into her morning and thrown off her equilibrium.

Thankfully, it hadn't mattered.

The moment she'd left her office, her station had enshrouded her like a cloak, her confidence returning as she'd been observed by her people. The second she'd stepped out of the Palace to meet the media, all of her doubts had slipped into the back of her mind. Everything she'd learned in the last four years, everything she'd had to become to deal with them effectively, came to the forefront.

Addressing them now, her gaze was as hard as the snow capped peaks of Braldazinbar, no doubt or weakness was visible. If they thought her weak, her rule would be cut short. "We are not here to answer your questions - we are here to give you information. The rumors that have escaped the Palace are true. Ben Skywalker has been surrendered to Prince Consort Zekk and returned to the Palace."

The reporters shouted an intelligible mess of questions, unable to hold back their enthusiasm.

Allana waited patiently, going so far as to look beyond them to the eager citizens who ringed the area eagerly. Her image was being broadcast live, and Allana knew the look would not go unnoticed. Several children waved as her head turned in their direction, and she went so far as to incline her head. Her inattention to the reporters didn't go unnoticed either and they quieted when they realized she was paying them no attention.

Allana didn't turn her attention back to them until there had been silence for a full thirty seconds. Finally, she opened her mouth to speak once more and not one dared interrupt.

"Ben Skywalker has been returned to us and is currently undergoing a physical assessment to determine if he is capable of fulfilling the task for which he was retrieved. His injuries were grievous upon his return and it was not until this morning that we were able to speak with him. Your patience, my people, is what we now require. Patience and time to determine to our… to _my_ satisfaction that he is capable of performing the duties the Consortium requires of him - providing a heir. Until such time as I have reached my analysis, the blocked on Gallinore -and Martial law - stand. Only when I am satisfied that no permanent harm has come to him will the blockade be lifted and Gallinore's citizens have their freedoms reinstated."

There was dead silence as shock rippled from the heart of the holo journalists. It was not the announcement they'd been expecting - but it was one they should have. Thus far, Allana's politics had been heavy handed and her reign characterized by strength and decisive action. Any slight was dealt with immediately and no quarter given. Why they'd expected her to give leniency to Gallinore on this most grievous of offenses, she didn't know; but it was possible that they'd expected things to settle into "normal" now that she had accomplished her objective.

What they didn't yet understand was that Gallinore was an example and one that must be etched in the minds of her subjects indelibly. She refused to go through that kind of emotional upheaval a second time.

One last, firm look around and she spun on her heel, presenting her back to the crowd in a supreme show of arrogance as she strode back to the palace. The doors closed behind her, but her posture didn't change. "Heenan!"

The guard who was filling in while Mila was on station at Gallinore appeared further up the corridor. "Yes, my Queen?"

"No one except Palace personnel are to be allowed past the front gates. The security cordon is to be maintained."

"And Ben Skywalker?"

"Is Palace personnel." Her tone was firm. "He is my guest until such a time as he declines to accept my hospitality."

"Of course, My Queen."

"Was there something else?"

Heenan presented her with a piece of flimsi, folded in half and bowed. "Jedi Skywalker asked that I deliver this."

Curious, Allana waved the guard away to do her bidding and flipped open the flimsi. A grin split her lips and she laughed, shaking her head.

Inside was a drawing - and not a very good one at that - but a picture of what was supposed to be her and Ben. The stick figures, both of the same height, in what she supposed was a sparring position. One was horizontal with 'x'es for eyes- the image of Ben - while her 'likeness' tossing him over her shoulder. Shaking her head, she folded it closed and found what she was looking for on the back.

_Think you can take me yet?_ was scrawled in his bold handwriting and unsigned.

Did she ever! Just not today; she'd had enough fights for one day and while taking Ben to the mat had merit, she doubted she'd come out of it intact. Ben might not appreciate some of the tricks she'd learned in his their time apart. Of course, she likely didn't know all of his tactics either, but it wasn't something she could deal with today.

Allana made her way to her quarters and stopped short just outside, another piece of flimsi stuck in the crack between the doors. She retrieved it and found another drawing. This one was equally as bad as the first, but showed a less violent scene. The figures were in a forest of badly done trees, though doing what she could only guess. Walking probably. She flipped the drawing over and found another note.

_I enjoy long walks through wooded glades - it's a shame Hapes doesn't have many_.

A wistful smile tilted her lips. She missed the forested tracks of the academy too. On more than one occasion she'd found herself longing for the miles of safe tracks and the swimming hole they'd spent a good deal of their time in. A sigh escaped as she pushed open her door and stepped inside. The two flimsis were dropped on the table just inside, reminders of a time before she'd had to become Queen. Before she'd had to become hardened to those around her.

Kicking the door shut with her heel, she headed for the 'fresher and the shower she'd promised herself once she was finished dealing with the vultures. Something about them made her feel dirty and it was almost becoming a ritual to cleanse herself after a tough encounter. She reached up to unclip the pin holding her hair back from her face and sighed as the braids cascaded over her shoulders. Massaging her scalp with both hands, she stepped out of her half boots and crossed the room in her stocking feet.

Her apartments were quiet, the windows paned not only to prevent assassination attempts but to mute the sounds of outside. To mute the sounds of the populace who owned her life like some adored diva.

Allana dropped her hands from her hair as she reached for the door leading to the 'fresher, her thoughts turning back to her speech - and the encounter with Ben in her office.

It hadn't been the reunion she'd expected.

What exactly that had been she didn't know, but it certainly hadn't involved kissing. She frowned. No. That wasn't true. Several of her fantasies had included Ben sweeping back into her life like some avenging hero to claim what was rightfully his. At least, they had when she'd first arrived. As she's grown and matured, forced to adapt to the ways and nuances of her position, those fantasies had changed from physical rescue to emotional.

It was _boring_ in the Palace - or had been once she'd 'convinced' Mila to see things from her point of view. Few challenged her, the men was foppish and fawning, believing she found any of it appealing, and she'd quickly learned to hide herself from the public. To only let them see what they _wanted_ to see - what they needed to see.

Her reforms had been stalled in her initial months in office until she'd learned that crucial lesson. It had been then that her fantasies about Ben had changed. Indistinct longings sometimes filled her nights, driving her to distraction. Other times she'd simply dream about frank conversation where she didn't have to pretend interest and could honestly speak her mind.

No hidden meanings

No politics.

Flipping the controls for the shower, she set the temperature and disrobed. The hot spray was like needles against her skin as she stepped in, but she endured it, working her fingers into the warrior braids and pulling them loose one by one until a curtain of red hung down to the middle of her back. The chore completed, she tilted her head back, and let the water melt away the stresses she could still feel in her body.

Stresses. She almost laughed, permitting herself a smile and a shake of her head. She'd hoped one day to have the kind of stresses Ben would bring back into her life. Now... now she found she was questioning them. Doubting them.

Or rather, doubting _him_.

She leaned her forehead against the wall of the shower and closed her eyes as the water sluiced over her in a curtain of soothing heat. Doubting Ben Skywalker. Never would she have believed it possible, but wasn't that exactly what she was doing? Doubting his ability to accept her the way she was now? Doubting his fidelity to his promise over the years, his intentions?

Did it really matter what his intentions were so long as she got what she needed - an heir?

Her eyes snapped open and she angrily pushed away from the wall. Her mother's advice resounded in her head and she would have clapped her hands over her ears to drown it out if it would have helped.

_Love wasn't necessary_.

Slapping her hands against the wet inside of the shower she shook her head. Her mother was _wrong_. Love _was_ necessary. Perhaps not in the manner she implied, but in her own way, her mother had loved her father. Not as Jaina loved her father perhaps, but at the very least she'd loved him as a friend and turned to him to help her. Or so she believed. She didn't know the precise details of her conception - nor did she wish to - but her father had never denied feeling something for her mother. It had been enough for them - could it be enough for her?

"Idiot." She snapped the insult at herself as she reached for the soap. "You already love him."

Soaping her hands before attacking the tangle that had become of her hair, Allana rubbed her skull with brisk force, as if trying to clean the thoughts from her mind. Ben deserved better, she knew that, but the Hapan part of her that had grown here on Hapes was demanding more.

It was demanding a scheme, a plan, something as a backup to achieve what she wanted.

She did her best to ignore it and block it out, but the thought was there all the same. A shiver racked her frame and she suddenly felt soiled, dirty for even consider it but the thoughts didn't stop. How could she get what she needed, keep what she'd had and take what she wanted without destroying the friendship she treasured more than life itself?

No answer was forthcoming as she washed herself, soaping her hair twice more but it didn't help.

She still felt dirty for even having considered on some base level a scheme to keep Ben on Hapes no matter that she'd schemed to get others _off_ Hapes for similar reasons. This was Ben; her best friend, the man who'd known her better than anyone and had offered her the chance of a lifetime.

A second chance.

And the last thing she wanted to do, she found herself thinking as she turned off the water, was to blow it. She wouldn't get a second chance at this; there would be no re-dos and no one to pull her out of the fire if she fell. The towel drifted to her hand as she stepped from the shower and she rubbed her face before covering her hair, her mind still absorbed with the dilemma before her.

Ben had asked for honesty. He'd asked for time. She could give one, given the other, but did they really have the time to spare? She had to present the people of Hapes with either proof of an Heir or proof she was working at obtaining one in less than three weeks. Would it be enough? Would Ben be able to know her, _really_ get to know her in three weeks?

Absently chewing her lip, she turned it over in her mind as she rubbed her tresses between the folds of the towel. Alternatively would it be too much time? Would seeing her for a week be enough only to have him see her for what she'd become and grow to hate it in the weeks that followed? Would he resent her eventually, unable to accept the changes she'd had to grow into to survive in Hapes' cutthroat politics? Would he even care?

Borrowing trouble wasn't going to get her anywhere.

Wrapping herself in a towel, she entered her room and stopped by the bed stand, keying open the private channel to her staff. "Heenan."

"Majesty?"

"Cancel my appointments for this afternoon."

"All of them?"

"All of them." Allana's tone was firm. "I'm taking a day for myself."

"What shall I tell them, Majesty?"

"Tell them... that their Queen Mother is occupied attempting to fulfill the terms they require for her continued reign."

There was silence on the other end for the briefest of moments before Heenan's enthusiastic reply was unmistakable. "I shall clear your schedule for the week, My Queen. Enjoy yourself."

The comm. clicked off, and Allana stared at it, wondering if she was doing the right thing. She'd already announced to Hapes her intentions, despite what she'd told Ben, and now her schedule was clear to entertain him minus the odd emergency that would crop up. Taking a deep breath, she turned towards her closet.

Worrying would get her nowhere; it was time to make good on her promise to Ben and reacquaint herself with his quirks. The smile that tilted her lips was anticipatory; she was looking forward to it.

* * *

><p>The fluttering of flimsi drew Allana's attention as she made to leave her suite an hour later and she bent to pick it up with a half-smile on her lips. She was just turning it over to look at the drawing she knew she'd find when a sound startled her.<p>

"I had help with those."

Whirling, her lightsaber in hand before conscious thought had registered the voice, her blue blade crossed emerald. Ben stood behind her, just outside her doorway, their lighsabers crossed at chest height. He wore the irrepressible grin she remembered so well - the one she'd used to delight in drawing from him.

"Good to see you haven't lost your reflexes, Twitch. Next time I'll sit on the roof."

Allana's lightsaber deactivated and she stepped back, her heart pounding swiftly in her chest - and not from fear. "I could have killed you."

"Not likely - after our discussion, I figured your time in office had only honed your reflexes. Otherwise you wouldn't have been here to rescue me. Your dad was kind enough to lend me his blade."

"I thought you were going to have a nap."

"I visited my cousin instead. Did you like them?"

"What?"

He waved to the picture and the ones that were visible on the table inside the door, deactivating the lightsaber and letting it hang loosely to the side. "Do you like them?"

Her lips twitched. "They're very... primitive."

"Your brother insisted on helping me so I let him draw so could I write on the backs - he's a smart kid for his age."

"He is." She leaned against the door, not inviting him in. "Was there some reason you felt you had to leave me notes?"

Ben planted his feet, looking like he was getting ready for a fight. "I was hoping you'd come looking for me."

"I was on my way to do just that when you decided to announce yourself so unorthodoxly."

"I couldn't resist." The irrepressible grin was back accompanied by the twinkle in his eye. "So you found me - now what?"

"I hadn't planned it that far." Allana shrugged. "I was thinking about asking you to go for a run - if you're up for it."

"I think I'll rain check. The Doc told me to take it easy for a couple of days or I'd land myself back in the bacta tank."

"Oh." Allana cocked her head at him. "So what did _you_ have in mind then?"

"Do you still swim?"

"Do you still breathe?"

"Thanks to you."

She winced. "Bad analogy. Why do you ask?"

"Your dad tells me there's a swimming pool somewhere in this palace." He arched his eyebrows suggestively. "And you always did say someday I'd join you."

A blush swept into her cheeks but she held his gaze. "Is that wise after what happened in my office?"

"Probably not." His admission was easy. "But I've been dying to see you in a bathing suit again since the last time. I figure it wouldn't hurt to ask."

Ignoring his admission, Allana struggled to find something they could do that wouldn't tempt her in the fashion he seemed inclined to. She wanted to get to know him again, not just the look and feel of his body. Not that it would be a _bad_ thing - it would help accomplish one of her goals - but it wasn't what she needed. What she needed was her friend first. "What'd the Doctor say about walks?"

Ben extended his hand and the drawings on her table lifted towards it. She caught them as they floated past and arched an eyebrow at him in silent query. He shrugged, letting his hand fall. "I distinctly remember putting something about walks on the back of one of those."

"In wooded areas." She selected the correct image. "Will the beach suffice? There are very few ways one can bug a beach - and my security knows to keep their distance."

"Shall we?"

"In that?"

He grinned impishly. "Look on the bright side. At least you won't ruin them if you get the urge to dunk me in the surf!"

Laughing, Allana turned back to put the images on her table before securing the door to her suite. "There is that. How'd you get past the guards to this point?"

"They didn't try and stop me. Said something about being expected," he cast her an inquiring look. "Know anything about that?"

Heat swept through her face all the way to the tips of her ears and she ducked her head, allowing her hair to fall about her face. Know anything about it? Heenan probably told the entire core of guards just what she believed their Queen Mother would be doing and to help in any way possible. Not that Allana could blame her; her words had been chosen to deliberately misconstrue and Heenan had taken them exactly as she'd planned.

"Twitch?"

"That would be my fault."

"Your fault?" He echoed the words surprised. "I wasn't trying to assign blame."

"Oh, I know." Allana squared her shoulders and glanced his way as they headed for the stairs. "But I asked Heenan to clear my schedule so I could... uh... spend more time with you."

The laughter in his voice was barely suppressed. "I bet there's more to that story than you're telling me."

"Maybe a little."

"Care to share?"

"Maybe later."

"Later? That's a change. You used to be as direct as they come."

"I used to be a lot of things."

"That's not what I mean. Earlier today you were direct - why the change now?"

"I don't want you to think I'm using you, Ben. I don't want you to feel pressured."

"So let me see the whole picture and I'll decide if there's pressure."

"You're going to have to trust me on this one." There was no _way_ she could explain just yet about the necessity of providing an heir - or her failure in doing so and why. She knew Ben wouldn't laugh at her, but she was concerned he might offer to help her - and that was an offer she didn't think she could or would refuse. There was only one problem... she wanted what her father had with Jaina, not what her mother had done to her father. There was a very distinct difference. "I'll explain it eventually, just not... not now, alright?"

"If you say so."

"I say so."

He mock bowed her, half inclining his upper body and sweeping one arm low. "As her Majesty wishes."

"Ben!"

"What? Don't you like my bow?"

"I liked the hug you gave me yesterday better."

He chuckled. "Me too - but you did give me a decree."

"Are you teasing me?"

"Maybe a little." He tweaked one of her braids the way he'd done as a kid. "You need to loosen up, Twitch, you've even more uptight now than you were before your decision to become Queen Mother!"

"It's not intentional, but I am under a lot of pressure right now."

"Do you really have time for this then? I wouldn't want to interfere with official business."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but spending time with you _is_ official business."

"Because of this whole consort thing?"

Allana nodded, taking the stairs down two at a time - and noting that Ben had no problems pacing her. That was different. Before he'd never been able to keep up completely. Or maybe he'd just given her space. "That's a major part of it. I wasn't kidding when I said I wanted time to get to know you again."

"And what, see a side of me you haven't seen yet?"

"One or two," the tease rolled off her tongue easily and she snapped her jaw shut, mortified.

Ben threw his head back with a laugh and slung an arm around her shoulders as they hit the bottom step. "There's the Allana I knew was hiding under all of that formality! I've missed your sharp tongue, Twitch, you should let it loose more often."

Making a face, she poked him in the ribs, but didn't pull away. "You bring out that side of me, I can't help myself."

"And nor should you. So where are we off too? I haven't had the official tour yet."

"After dinner maybe?"

"Am I eating with you?"

"Would you like to?"

"I'd love to. It's a date."

She elbowed him none too gently and stepped away. "Date. Right."

"Allana?" He caught her by the shoulder, his expression concerned. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No; it's just my frame of mind. Come on, I'll race you to the beach. It's about a hundred yards, the doc won't mind that will he?"

"A hundred yard dash, huh? No Force powers?"

Crossing her arms over her chest, she arched both eyebrows. "Since when have we _ever_ used Force Powers when we- hey!"

Ben shot off towards the mark she'd indicated, leaving her behind.

"Cheater!"

He flashed a grin back her way as she took off after him before focusing on his objective. Allana kept her eyes pinned on his shoulders, watching as each long stride, each powerful push of her legs brought her closer. The wind whipped her hair about her face, liberating her in a way she hadn't felt since... since the academy. Closing the gap, she controlled her breathing and pushed herself that much harder.

A flash of her danger sense brought her head around to see the glint of a blaster scope from a distance - but pointed their way. She called on the Force without thought and sent her body from a run into a lunge. "Ben! _Look out!_"

Ben let out a yelp as she ploughed into him, sending them both rolling. They hit the ground just before the hundred yard mark and Allana controlled the roll, sending them up and over the high tide mark and down the small drop to the beach, and out of danger. In mid-air, she shifted, twisted again this time so she was on the bottom and the air whooshed from her lungs as they hit the ground - and stuck to the wet sand.

His weight bore down on her as her body absorbed the impact, but didn't last as Ben scrambled backwards the moment they stopped.

"Allana, are you alright?"

Gasping, she found the strength to reach out and grab his tunic. With a jerk she pulled him down so his head didn't stick up over the dune - just as a blaster bolt sizzled through the air where his head had been. Ben's reaction was not the one she expected. Instead of jumping to his feet, saber in hand, he collapsed, covering her with his body as he looked around for the source.

"Not..." she coughed, trying to get her lungs to respond once more, "not here."

"Hush, Allana."

Her head gyrated back and forth in frustration as she struggled to pull in enough air to speak. "Over the... dune."

Ben's gaze followed where she pointed - to where they'd come over the breaker - and then his eyes closed. The familiar feel of another being drawing on the Force enveloped her - only he was doing two things at once. Her breathing became less labored as he allowed her body to absorb more of the oxygen she was inhaling. Even as he assisted her, his senses were cast outward, searching for the assassin.

Allana took over helping herself, feeling a little foolish for not having through of it, and allowed Ben to continue the search. Once she was breathing easier, she touched his shoulder.

"Ben?"

"They're gone." His eyes opened, his head turning back in her direction."They disappeared before I could find them."

"That's how assassins usually work. Could you... let me up now?"

"Nope."

"Pardon?"

"You saved my life - not once, not twice but three times now."

"I think my dad saved you on one of those."

"Under your orders."

"Good thing you're not a Wookie - you'd owe me a life debt."

"Maybe I should anyway."

"Ben?"

"I think I'll need to repay you, Allana."

"It's what friends do. You'd have done the same for me."

"In a heartbeat." His body shifted on hers so that his face was now even with her own, but his blue eyes were focused almost exclusively on her lips. "I'd like to kiss you again."

Her mouth went dry as her heart skipped a beat. "You would?"

"Very much." A weight seemed to descend on her eye lids as his face drew nearer. "Would you like me to?"

"I-" Allana almost swallowed her tongue as her lips brushed against his the moment they moved.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Liquid fire.

There was no other way to describe the electric feeling that surged through her system as his mouth claimed hers for the second time that day. Her body reacted with amazing speed as one of his hands slipped into the hair at the base of her neck and cradled her head. The touch of his hand was almost reverent despite the insistence of his lips.

One of her hands was caught between them, still loosely tangled in his shirt, and her fingers clenched without though, unconsciously drawing him closer as he deepened the kiss. She responded without thought, without guile, drinking in the taste and texture of his lips and mouth like a woman dying of thirst.

_This_ was what she wanted.

Ben pulled back, easing away slowly and dropping feather light kisses across her slightly swollen lips. Her eyes fluttered open, staring at him questioningly, unable to comprehend why he'd pulled back as he propped himself on his forearm so she wasn't holding his weight. One hand continued to cradle the back of her head. The other, the one holding his weight, toyed with the ends of one braid. The smile that curved his lips was as soft as his voice. "You kiss like a novice, Twitch."

A cold shower wouldn't have dropped her back to reality so quickly. With a turn and a heave, she shoved him away and sat up. Hurt by his barb, she lashed back without thinking. "So would you if you were being hounded by every male in sixty three systems!"

"Woah!" Ben reached for her, "I didn't mean it like that!"

"Then what did you mean?" Glaring at him, she fought against the sting of his words, completely taken off guard by the statement. "I know I'm not Jysella, but-"

"Stop." His hand closed over her lips, muffling whatever accusation she'd been about to throw his way. "Just stop, Allana. I didn't mean that as a bad thing - I'm _glad_ you kiss like a novice."

Confusion flickered through her eyes, their guard dropping as she looked at him questioningly.

A smile flickered across his lips. "It means you haven't been kissed properly before - which means I get to teach you." Blood rushed into her cheeks and her eyelids fluttered downwards. His chuckled was soft. "I didn't dare hope that you might let me."

"I didn't… I mean, I-" she faltered, her words muffled by his fingers.

Ben shifted his touch so she could speak freely. "You didn't what?"

"It wasn't intentional."

His eyebrows arched and a flicker of hurt sparked in his eye. "What do you mean?"

With a sigh, she stared at him trying not to let the blush get any hotter. "I've been kissed Ben, by quite a few men who covet the position as my consort."

"Really."

"Really!" His skeptical tone made her snap the word more forcefully than normal. "And _they_ have the courtesy not to point out my failings!"

"Being innocent isn't a failing, Allana."

"I'm not innocent."

"Your kiss tells me otherwise." His words were gently teasing. "I'm sure you've seen much and done much that makes you an adult but this… what's between you and me…" Ben shook his head. "You're very much an innocent."

"It doesn't matter," sand covered her wrists as she put her hands down to push herself to her feet. "It doesn't matter if… if I'm as virginal as when I left the academy! My personal feelings on the matter don't mean a thing!"

"To whom?"

"To you, to them, to everyone!"

"They matter to me!"

"Which is why you kiss me and then insult me?"

Ben stared at her and then flopped back to the sand, propping himself on his elbows as he regarded her intently. "Touchy, touchy, Twitch, you're misinterpreting my words. Would you _please_ listen to what I'm saying and not what you think you should be hearing?"

"They're usually one and the same."

"Not from me. You've grown paranoid."

"I told you I've changed."

"Paranoid on Hapes isn't a bad thing," his tone was dry. "But there's such a thing as taking it too far. What you're feeling matters a great deal to me. I'm starting to think I stayed away far too long."

Her shoulders slumped. "What's done is done, Ben." Clenching her hands in the sand, she struggled against the futility of it all. If Ben had shown up sooner, would things be different? "We can only move forward, no matter how much we'd like to rewind and start anew."

"Would you?"

"Would I what?"

"Go back and start over if you could? Change your decisions?"

Allana was silent. Would she? Would she still take the crown knowing what she knew now? Knowing how it would change her into a creature she sometimes recognized? Would she go back and let Ben kiss her back at the academy, knowing now how he would taste and how it would affect her? Or would she still feel compelled, honor bound, to do what she saw as her duty no matter the personal cost.

No matter that it cost her Ben?

Staring at him, she couldn't honestly tell him no - but she couldn't say yes either. He waited, silently, and she was finally forced to look away. Her gaze was drawn to the waves lapping the shore as she tried to sort it out in her mind. Despite their soothing sounds and the gentle breeze tugging at her hair - the peaceful feeling of the whole setting - turmoil continued to reign inside her. Instead of answering his question, she countered it for lack of having an answer.

"Would you, Ben?"

Silence descended between them once more as Allana realized he no more had an answer to that question than she did.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Long minutes of silence passed between them before Ben finally pushed to his knees and carefully checked beyond the embankment. Nothing stirred beyond and, now focused, he was able to confirm that no further threats to either he or Allana were present. She watched him intently, those two-toned gray eyes even more mysterious than he remembered. He couldn't read her thoughts anymore - they were no longer reflected in those silvery orbs.

Idly, he wondered if she'd thought about him as much as he'd thought about her over the last four years. Did she realize how often he'd wanted to come and see her, to speak with her, and forced himself to give her the time she needed? Did she understand how agonizingly hard that had been? If his parents hadn't kept him busy, Ben secretly suspected he'd have spent all of his time on Hapes instead of none.

The Hapan assignment had been his parent's concession to his obsession.

"It's safe to move, if you'd like."

Allana looked away as he looked back to her, staring once more at the ripples of water as the waves broke along the shore. "Deference to my station?"

"Your frame of mind maybe. I didn't mean to make this harder."

"You don't even know what _this_ is," she squeezed the hand he couldn't see around a ball of wet sand.

"Only because you won't talk to me."

_Won't talk to him?_ She almost laughed, but didn't for fear it would come out sounding hysterical - or as a sob. She wanted to talk to him, needed to talk to him, she just didn't know where to start.

"Have I really changed so much you don't trust me anymore?"

His words stung and, as Ben had no doubt hoped, compelled her to answer. "Have you, Ben?" Slanting a look at him, she searched his features. "You were a man when I left for Hapes, already grown and world wise. You'd seen things - done things - I'd only then dreamed of - but even since then you're no longer who you used to be."

Ben returned her gaze solemnly. "Experience changes a person; you know that better than anyone, but I'm still fundamentally me, Allana. I'm still the same person you grew up with, still the confidante you can tell anything to and won't judge - and I'm still the man who will always be beside you no matter what. I don't think you understand that and maybe four years away from you wasn't a good idea - even if a year and half of that wasn't by choice."

"Maybe you're right and you haven't changed all that much," as she admitted it aloud, she realized how true it was. Yes, he was more mature than he'd been, but fundamentally he was still the same fun loving, prankster she remembered from home. "But I'm not the same Allana, no matter how much I might want to be. You're right; experience has changed me... and sometimes, I don't think it's for the better."

"You've always been a good person and that you're stronger than you've ever been before isn't a bad thing."

"How can you say that?" Her defenses had crumbled with his solemn speech, leaving behind the base emotions which plagued her - and would likely continue to plague her - since his return. "You only carry the memory of who I was, not who I've become. You don't know the things I've had to do, the people I've hurt - you don't know the cost of my crown Ben."

"I want to." He shifted closer, settling to the sand next to her, but far enough away to avoid accidental touching. "I want to know everything about you, Allana. I want to know about the triumphs and tribulations I missed and how they've added to the core that is you."

"No you don't." Allana eased back on her elbows, turning to look back across the waves as Ben mirrored her pose, the charged atmosphere between them only showcasing how far they had to go. "I may have done what I had to do to survive, but that doesn't mean I like it - or that I want to share it."

Ben was silent. The Allana he'd known had been closed mouthed, but the woman before him brought a whole new meaning to the term. She was still frank, but instead of being frank about what she was thinking, she was frank about not wishing to delve into those thoughts or feelings. It was a slightly disturbing revelation after seeing her in the med bay and in her office. Even out here on the beach line she'd relaxed enough - melted even - under his kisses. But she wasn't ready to discuss that with him either.

"I know when to retreat." he said at last, moving to get to his feet. "And I know when my company is no longer wanted."

"Don't." Allan's hand shot out before he was able to move more than a few inches.

Looking down at the fingers firmly grasping his wrist, he lifted inquiring eyes to hers. "Don't what?"

Don't what indeed. Feelings were running amok inside her body that were being consistently contradicted by the thoughts whirling through her head. "Don't judge me."

"Judge you?" Ben eased back to the ground. "Is that what you think I'm doing?"

"Aren't you?" Releasing him abruptly, she sat up and pulled her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms protectively about them. "I'm not what you expected to find and I know it. You're disappointed."

"Never."

"Liar."

"_Never_." His vehement denial was soft. "I meant what I said earlier, Allana. I'm not disappointed by the young woman you've grown into."

"You don't know me - you can't know that!"

"No?" Shifting, he scooted around until he sat facing her, their hips almost touching, but even. Allana still wouldn't look at him, so he deliberately caught one of her braids in his fingers. It didn't draw more than a sidelong look, but at least she didn't twitch away. "Do you still love your father, Allana?"

That drew her attention with a snap of her head. "What kind of inane question is that?"

"Do you?"

"Of course I do!"

"And your brother?"

The look she slanted him said he'd better have a good reason for insulting her or he'd regret it. Ben simply rubbed the still trapped lock of hair between the pad of his thumb and forefinger and smiled softly. "Do you still love me?"

Her eyes widened fractionally and he saw the truth in her gaze before self-preservation reared its head and it was shuttered. Her eyes became cool and she tossed her head, tugging her hair from his grasp. "You presume much."

"And you're avoiding the question."

"One of many new talents."

"And one that won't be useful around me. Answer me, Allana; do you still love me?"

Turning her face away, she ignored the question. "Do you remember back at the academy, Ben?"

"What does that have to-"

"Just answer the question!" Her voice broke despite the way she snapped the order - all without looking at him.

Ben relented. "I remember everything about you from the academy."

"Did I ever, even once, tell you that I loved you?"

"You never said it, no."

"Then what makes you think-" her knuckles turned white where they grasped one another, "-that I love _you_?"

"Everything you've done and said, Allana. I've never forgotten how you refused to take my freedom when I offered it to you freely to follow you here." He touched her then, one hand sliding over her shoulder in a gentle caress. "I can't forget how you begged me not to speak my heart until I had convinced you to accept me."

"I did that for me, not for you!" Rolling away, she surged to her feet and rounded on him. "I know what you think you felt Ben, but it's no longer relevant!"

"It is," he rose slowly, "because that young woman who strove to be strong has turned into the woman I see before me today. I didn't love you because of your physical beauty, Allana. Unlike the shallow males you've grown accustom to, looks and titles have no meaning to me. Son-of-Skywalker - remember?"

She took a step back, as if too ward him off and Ben advanced on her. "I know you're under a lot of pressure, I know you've had to adapt to survive on Hapes and I knew it when I let you go that you wouldn't be the same sweet girl I'd grown up with. I knew the night you let me play your consort at your seventeenth life day party that it was a fantasy no matter how much I wished it otherwise."

"You _want_ to be my slave?"

Staring at him incredulously, Ben watched her defenses waver. She didn't quite know how to react to his teasing anymore, nor his frankness. Apparently life with the Hapans had given her a new bag of tricks. "If it means I never have to hear you're carrying another man's child - yes."

A strangled laugh caught in her throat. "Another... man's... You have no right-"

"I have every right." Ben swooped into her personal space with deliberate intent - but he didn't touch her, choosing instead to let her decide if she was going to run, or face him down. He wasn't disappointed when she squared her shoulders and met his gaze head on. "You've been my best friend, confidante, partner in crime and obsession for a long time, Twitch. I told you once that if anyone were to lay a hand on you, I'd have to kill him. It's as true now as it was then - I won't share you, Allana."

"I'm not yours to share."

"No?"

"No."

"That medallion of mine says otherwise."

"I think you have that backwards."

"You'd have never given it to me if it didn't."

"Aren't you being a little presumptuous?"

"You're your father's daughter, Twitch." his eyes sparkled knowingly. "Which means you _do_ belong to me."

Her hand came up and Ben reacted, catching her wrist and twisting her arm back. Allana followed it around, flipping her body over and under and sweeping him off his feet. They tumbled back to the sand, Allana's wrist firmly caught in his hand as she landed sprawled across his chest, their hands outstretched to the side. Nose to nose, they stared at each other and Allana wondered what - if anything - he saw in her gaze even as she searched his.

Honesty shone from those blue orbs and no small amount of suppressed hurt was in their depths. Guilt consumed her, killing her desire to fight him and she relaxed in his hold, slumping across his chest. "Think what you will, Ben; nothing I say or do will change your mind."

"I don't want your surrender, Allana. I never have."

"Then why are we arguing?"

He smiled faintly. "Because the Hapan Queen seems to think she can forget about me."

"Never." It popped out before she could stop it, but she didn't hide her gaze from him. It was worth it to see the hurt ease in those blue orbs even if it cost a measure of her pride.

His free hand came up to cup her cheek, his thumb tracing over the soft skin. "There's my girl. That's the free spirit I admired so much back home."

"She's not as free as she used to be."

"Only because there's no one to free her - and that's all going to change now that I'm here."

Allana ducked her head and shifted, resting it on his shoulder. "You can't fix what isn't broken, Ben. I made a conscious choice to let that free spirited young lady go - to become what I am. I can't... I won't let her out simply because you want to see her."

"Then why am I catching glimpses?"

She laughed softly, sadly. "I never could hide anything from you. May I have my hand back?" He released her immediately and Allana sat up, sliding off him to settle once again on the sand. "I can't afford to let her out, Ben."

"Why not? Hiding who you are isn't good for you - I can see it in your eyes Allana... when you're not hiding from everyone."

A sigh escaped her lips. "I had to become who I am today to keep my crown. My bloodline isn't enough, it never has been. The crown might be mine by birth right, but it falls to me to be able to keep it."

"Hapan Politics."

Allana nodded.

"Did I mention I hate Hapes?"

Her eyebrows almost hit her hairline. "You used to say you loved their culture - with a few moderations."

"I hate what it's done to you, Twitch. You were always my equal when it came to maturity - more probably even that last time I saw you. You were willing to give up what you wanted for what you saw as your duty. Most of all I hate what it's done to us. You don't trust me anymore - and I feel like I've lost you."

"You haven't." His words were like knives sliding through her breast bone searching for her core. "You couldn't lose me."

"If you're so certain I don't know you," the pain in his whispered words was a tangible thing, "then I already have."

Falling into an uncomfortable silence, Allana was at a loss how to break it. Ben simply stared at her for a few long minutes before getting to his feet. Wordlessly he'd offered a hand - which she accepted - and they'd begun walking along the beach. Once on her feet, she couldn't in good conscience touch him.

It hurt too much as she thought about everything she'd said, everything she'd done since realizing he was alive - and everything that totally contradicted what she really wanted.

The silence continued to grow, stretching out like chasm of insurmountable differences. Differences that were all of her own making - and ones she couldn't say she hadn't placed there deliberately. A part of her was terrified that Ben wouldn't like who she'd become, so she'd been fighting to get him to keep his distance.

As the silence stretched from minutes into tens of minutes and finally into a half an hour, the tension ate away at her composure. This wasn't the kind of pressure she was used to; this was something foreign, something that felt like sand slipping through her fingers - like she was losing the chance she'd hoped to get. And she didn't know what to say or do to prevent it from happening.

A sidelong look at his expression showed how the muscles in his neck were chorded and taught, and she knew she wasn't immune to the uncomfortable way the silence lay between them. Desperate for some semblance of what they'd used to share, she found her voice - managing to ignore the fact it cracked.

"I could be wrong, Ben."

They were already heading back to the palace and he stopped in his tracks - but didn't look at her. "How?"

She flinched at the short response but forged ahead. "You might know me - better than I know myself anymore."

"I thought you were so certain you've changed."

"I can't escape the fact I've changed, Skywalker, just like you can't avoid the fact you're a jerk."

"_I'm_ the jerk? You're the one who's been in control of this relationship since before you knew what was happening between us. You've jerked me around, Twitch, like one of those nobles you claimed to despise so much."

There was no defense against the truth - so she didn't even try. "I know, and I'm sorry."

"Sorry's not going to cut it anymore, Allana." He finally turned to look at her and the hurt he'd been hiding was plain on his face, additional barbs to a heart already aching. "Hapes _has_ changed you, but not in the way that you think. Our friendship was timeless, but there's always been something more between us - you know it; I know it."

"Hapes hasn't changed that."

"Maybe not, but it has changed you." Ben swept into an elaborate mockery of a courtly bow. "It, my Queen, has turned you into a coward - and that's one change I find I can't stomach. Good bye, Allana."

Incredulous, Allana watched as Ben strode swiftly away from her, all of her worst fears being realized in that moment. Ben had seen what she was, what she'd become, and couldn't accept it. Except he was wrong - being Queen Mother hadn't turned her into a coward - it had forced her to know her limits and this was well beyond her limits. Everything between them was uncharted territory and yes, she was terrified of it, but dammit, the man had no right to simply say goodbye when she'd blockaded a world to get him back!

"That's some statement coming from you, Son of Skywalker!" The scathing words left her lips with a ringing tone that dripped vehemence. "You're the one running from what you don't understand!"

"Do I look like I'm running, Queen Mother?"

"You certainly don't appear to be fighting for what you want."

"I could say the same for you."

"Really?" Striding forward, Allana leveled an icy look on the back of his head - a head that still hadn't turned to address her. "I don't recall seeing you blockade a world to get me back!"

"I don't recall having the resources to do so."

"The Ben Skywalker I remember wouldn't have needed a fleet to do it."

"I was rash in my youth."

"And so was I!" Allana grabbed his elbow and spun him around, needing to call on the Force to get enough leverage to do it. "Just because I'm different doesn't mean I don't want to be your friend."

"Is that all?"

"For now." Her heart screamed at the lie, but she forged ahead. "I want to regain what we had before we try for anything else, no matter what chemistry there is between us. I'm attracted to you and... I..." she faltered, her grip slipping. "I..."

"You don't know what to do about it because you're afraid and it's not something you've ever felt before."

Nodding mutely, she knew there was a silent appeal in her gaze.

"I feel the same way, Twitch."

"But... Jys and you..."

"And a dozen other women who weren't _you_."

Jealousy surged within her breast for a moment. "A dozen, huh?"

"I didn't keep count."

"Should you have?"

"The number isn't important, and other than Jys I don't really remember anything about them."

"Jys is just unforgettable, huh?"

"She's a friend, nothing more."

"Like me?"

"For now. Lust I know, Allana, I'm familiar with it and I can admit I've even succumbed to it. But this - whatever this is between you and me - is something else." The unspoken emotion lay heavily between them for a heartbeat before Ben continued. "The first thing you need to stop doing is pushing me away, okay?"

"Okay."

"You made me a promise earlier, and it's one I intend to hold you to. I want to get to know _you_ again, Twitch - not this facade that you wear to keep other people away. I'm _not_ other people and I don't deserve what you've been putting me through this afternoon."

"I know." Allana began walking, confident he'd fall into step beside her - and she wasn't disappointed. "I just... part of me reacted. I've been chased, hounded and badgered by men since I got here."

"I'm not them."

"I know that here." She placed her hand over her heart, "but my head keeps telling me you're just another man trying to get into my pants."

"Is it crass to say you're right to worry about that?"

"Ben!"

"What?" He grinned impishly. "I made you a promise four years ago and I intend to convince you that I'm the best man for the job."

"You make it sound like a chore."

Unexpectedly, Ben stepped closer and his fingers brushed against the exposed skin on the back of her neck, dipping beneath the curtain of warrior braids. It made her shiver as the butterfly soft caress danced over her spinal cord. He leaned in closer, never faltering in the pace she'd set, and his breath feathered across her ear, his tone suggestive. "Does it _feel_ like a chore?"

"N-no."

He backed away, out of her personal space, and his grin turned wicked. "Then it won't be. Convincing you on the other hand..."

"I... I ah... I don't think I'll need a lot of convincing."

"Allana!"

"What? You started this."

"Want me to finish it?"

Heat crawled up her neck, and she was unable to control the sudden burning of her ears or the way her cheeks bloomed with color. Despite it, she couldn't bite back a sassy reply. "I'll take a rain check - dinner should be ready."

"I can make you forget all about dinner."

"I'm sure you can make me forget a lot of things."

"I only aim to please."

"And please you do, but for now it _pleases_ me to have you with me for dinner - not to _be_ dinner."

"Another time perhaps." He dropped the easy banter with a grin and a wink. "It's not something formal, is it?"

"Hardly. You can even come dressed in that - and I won't shower the sand from my clothes. Informal enough for you?"

"Only if you meet one condition."

"I'm starting to dread your conditions."

"You'll love this one."

"If you say so. What is it?"

"You let me chose the locale for our dinner and the kitchen is to pack it to travel."

"We can't leave the palace or its grounds."

"That's fine. So, do we have a deal?"

He looked so innocently earnest she couldn't refuse him and a surge of anticipation roared through her system. Nodding before she could change her mind, she agreed. "My dinner plans are at your mercy sir."

"You won't regret it. Come on - your chef is going to hate me."

Laughing, they headed back towards the palace at a fast walk and Allana found herself smiling for no reason except the enjoyment of his company.

It was as it should be.

* * *

><p>Ben's idea of dinner turned out to be a picnic on the highest terrace of the Fountain Palace, overlooking the sea beyond its rear borders and blocking the sight of the reporters and mob that had come to camp outside the gates. Allana knew that Ben hadn't yet watched any of her broadcasts - or rather, she believed he hadn't - and so he had yet to see that side of her.<p>

A part of her was thankful even as she was worried. What would he think of the seemingly heartless woman she knew she projected as a part of her royal image?

"Hey," Ben waved a hand in front of her gaze. "Whatever you're thinking - stop it."

"Huh?"

"Is that the new Royal way of asking what?" He looked amused. "You're thinking something serious - too serious for a spontaneous picnic."

"Hardly spontaneous the way my guards are grumbling." His tease made her smile. "Not to mention my chef is threatening to quit."

"He won't." Ben was supremely confident as he turned back to smooth the blanket over the flagstones. "Working in the Palace is the best job he could ever hope for - not to mention about the cushiest job on the planet."

"For a mere male, is that it?"

The light of Ben's smile dimmed. "There's nothing 'mere' about being a Hapan male anymore, Allana; you've seen to that."

"Not yet."

"Maybe not completely, but you've started a chain of events that's cascading through your empire."

"I hope so." She sighed, accepting the glass of wine he offered with unconscious grace and a faint smile. "It's going to take years to implement all the reforms mother intended."

"Is that what you want?"

"Of course!" Taking a sip of the mild beverage, she pinned him with a look. "Why wouldn't I want it?"

"It could mean the end of the Monarchy."

She burst out laughing. "You say it like it's a bad thing."

"Hapes needs some kind of government and the monarchy - you in particular - is very effective in doing what needs to be done regardless of whatever is currently fashionable."

"Following my career in office?"

"At every opportunity," he admitted easily, taking a sip of his own before he resumed unpacking their meal. "Not that I had much opportunity between the missions assigned to me."

"I hear you've been on some doozies."

"Following my career as a Jedi?"

The grin that crossed Allana's lips at the teasing echo of her own question was unabashed. "Whenever possible - and your mom and dad keep me informed. They know I worry about you when you're out of touch."

"Worry about me?" Arching his eyebrows, he feigned shock. "The Hapan Queen Mother _worries_ about a _mere_ male? What would the populace say?"

"Probably that it's about time,"

Her dry reply made him laugh. "I take it you don't worry about many men."

"I don't worry about many _people_ period," she corrected, taking another sip of her wine as Ben placed the basket aside and settled comfortably against the railing at his back. "My dad and brother are about the only consistent men in my life and my step-mom... Jaina's well..."

"Jaina?"

"Yeah."

They shared a laugh and Ben raised his glass. "To you, Twitch."

"What'd I do now?"

He grinned. "For having the courage to do whatever is necessary to protect what is yours."

"Mine, huh?"

"Do you doubt my claim?"

A bark of laughter accompanied the shake of her head. "Hardly. But then a part of me has always considered _you_ to be mine."

"Jys will be heartbroken," his light tease was offset by the pure _pleasure_ she saw glowing in his eyes. "But I'm sure we can find her another male to focus her sights on. Your brother's a little young, but given time I'm _sure_ he could be just what she needs."

Allana almost choked on her wine, sputtering as she struggled to breathe with his ridiculous solution. Ben rescued her glass and set it aside before reaching out to rub her back with one hand. Eyes watering, Allana coughed as breathing slowly came more easily, her throat and lungs burning. She hadn't laughed so long or so spontaneously in a long time - the fact she'd almost drowned on her drink non-withstanding.

Shifting his grip, Ben slid his hand up until it cupped her face - and used the pad of his thumb to brush away the tears of mirth that shimmered on the corner of her lashes. Just like that, the mood shifted, tension springing to life between them and all centered on the feather light touch he had on her cheek.

Her breath caught and held as their gazes locked. The shade of his irises darkened, deepening from the ice blue she was so familiar with to a shade of cobalt she'd rarely seen. It was a shade she'd always loved to see when he looked at her - only now she understood what it meant. It meant he wanted to kiss her, and perhaps more.

"Ben?"

His gaze dropped to her lips. "Yes?"

"Why... why did you kiss me in my office?"

The hesitant question brought that deep ocean look back to her own. "It was time."

"I don't understand."

Stroking her cheek gently, his face move fractionally closer. "You were exceptionally appealing to me back at the academy, Allana, but you were far too young. I knew your father would likely hunt me down if I did anything to influence you towards me so I made a point of cultivating Jys as an interest and being away as much as I could. I came back to find you on the verge of being a woman - a woman who turned me down."

"You said you understood."

"And I did - I do," he acknowledged, shifting his posture and moving closer so he could see her features without craning his neck. "That doesn't mean it didn't hurt."

"I never meant to hurt you."

"I know that." His smile was softly reassuring. "You never deliberately hurt anyone in your life."

A trembling smile crossed her lips. "I'd like you to believe that, but that's not _exactly_ true."

"No?"

"I blockaded Gallinore."

"Only because they left you no choice."

"I've had to execute criminals."

"In the most humane and painless way possible."

"You can't know that."

"No?" He brushed his fingers into the softness of the hair over her ear, making her shiver as he traced the outline of that shell with his finger tips. "Did you enjoy it?"

"Only once."

"What was his crime?"

"Repeated rape and murder."

"Did you mourn the necessity?"

Taking a deep breath, Allana considered the question, struggling to follow his line of thinking while his touch was playing havoc with her senses. "Not at the time."

"Later?"

"That night. I wondered if I shouldn't have tried to sway his behavior in some other fashion."

His finger tips skimmed through the silken fall of her hair, delving into the unbound portion between the warrior braids - but didn't linger as they dropped to the smooth curve of her neck."By using the Force?"

"The F-Force... or something e-else I had overlooked."

"And upon reflection since... did you overlook a possibility?"

Suddenly unable to find her voice, she shook her head fractionally, her eyes locked on his.

"You never have." His words held such conviction, such _certainty_, her throat closed completely. His free hand finally joined its mate as he eased closer, cupping her neck with the hand already stroking its length, his other coming to rest along her jaw line. "It's why you wouldn't let me kiss you before you left for Hapes, but let me play your consort. It's why you let me keep the medallion - and it's why you didn't fight me in your office or on the shore this afternoon."

Searching his gaze, completely undone by his assessment of her character, she could only stare at him, her mind silently crying out that he was wrong - even as her heart acknowledged he was right about it all. Ben had always known her better than anyone; why had she thought he wouldn't know her now?

Ben's lips grazed her cheek - the one he didn't hold - before he pulled back."Everything happens for a reason, Allana. You and I could have been cousins - we're not. We could have put this reunion into motion before the threat of separation - we didn't. You could have denied me, left me for dead on Gallinore - you didn't... and you could have chosen _not_ to kiss me back."

"Never."

The word escaped unexpectedly and nearly soundless to be echoed by a flare of heat in Ben's blue orbs. "My thoughts exactly."

He was going to kiss her again; she could see it in his eyes. Except - he didn't.

Using the force of will that had been needed back at the academy, Ben caressed her skin softly once more with his thumbs - and let her go, easing back and away from her as she stared at him in wide-eyed disappointment. Her two-toned gray orbs rounded as he moved further away and turned to the myriad of food he'd retrieved from the blanket, busing himself by dishing up the supper he'd promised.

Under her incredulous stare, he moved even further away and settled back against the rail, plate in hand. He lifted his fork. "It's never a good idea to look at a man like that, Twitch." The look he sent her was heavy lidded and languid, belying the faint teasing undertone of his words. "It might give him ideas."

Ideas indeed! She had enough of _those_ racing around in her head to make her dizzy. But give _him_ ideas? Swallowing the lump in her throat, she realized she'd been staring at him like a lack wit for the better part of several minutes. Gathering her wits about her, color blossoming in her cheeks, Allana reached for the plate Ben had placed beside her before taking his own away.

They ate in silence and Allana noted a startling difference in herself. Every look, every shift in Ben's posture, every action he took was suddenly one she could feel or hear or see. The catch in his breathing as he forced it under control was suddenly audible and the way his gaze lingered on her lips each time she placed a bite between them had become an invisible caress.

Unable to stand the charged silence a moment longer, she polished off the last of her dinner and reached for her wine glass. "Do you still spar?"

Ben's eyebrows rose, as if to ask her what she thought was happening. When she returned his gaze steadily, despite her high color, he realized she expected an answer. "Prisoners aren't allowed to spar."

A flinch crossed her features at his mild rebuke. "Would you, then, given the chance?"

"Is that an invitation?"

The double meaning of his words didn't go unnoticed for all Allana's lack of experience. "To my sparring mat only. As part of my quest to find a suitable male for my consort, I suggested to Mila that a contest of skill might be in order." Her clipped, formal words stopped for a moment as she took a sip of her drink.

"What kind of skill?"

"The kind needed to best me, one on one, in a duel."

His look turned speculative. "With or without the Force?"

"Does it matter?" Her reproach was mild. "None of my male subjects have that ability."

"Unless you deliberately default."

"Never." She tilted her chin. "It would be pointless."

"Or a show of favoritism."

"Either way, it wouldn't accomplish my goal."

Ben seemed more intrigued than insulted by her formal tone. "And what goal would that be, Queen Mother?"

"To have a man who is my equal share my crown." Despite the mild way she phrased it, her voice shook.

"Your crown, or your bed?"

Allana shrugged. "One is the same as the other - but it matters not; no male on Hapan soil who is not related to me has that ability."

"Except one," Ben countered with a fiendish smile. "Me."

"Then you are welcome to try, Jedi Skywalker," her formal tone dropped. "Of course... I hope you do."

"You don't honestly expect me to think you're going to have a tournament." Ben lifted his own glass, looking at her over the rim. "If you'd wanted a Hapan consort, you'd have taken one by now."

Allana lifted one shoulder. "Not for lack of trying."

"I sense a story."

"Hardly." A small chuckle escaped as she shook her head. "More like an addendum to my time here - Isys is most distraught he did not have a greater impact I'm sure."

"Isys?" There was a flash of something in Ben's gaze she didn't fully comprehend and his voice took on a new edge. "Who is Isys?"

Regarding him curiously, Allana cocked her head. "No one of import - why?"

Ben's whole body had become taught, as if waiting for an excuse to release the suddenly leashed energy. "You speak of him fondly."

"Are... are you... _jealous_, Ben?"

"Wary of my competition."

Something grabbed her heart in that moment and she fell just a little more in love with him. Melting - and unwilling to cause him undue concern after his incarceration - she chose complete honestly. "You have none."

"Truly?"

Allana nodded, her color heightening once more. "You've never had any, Ben."

The easing of his posture was immediate. "Then why do you fight me?"

"'Tis easier to fight what you don't understand than to give into it blindly." Twisting the stem of the glass between her fingers, she dropped her gaze to the red liquid. "And your reactions to me are ones I've never seen - not from you, anyway."

"From Isys?"

"Once," she affirmed, "but not recently. Mostly just from the sons of the nobles of court - and even then, some of their fathers too."

"Not to your taste, hmm?"

"When they're the same age as my own?" Allana shuddered. "Hardly."

"You don't prefer older men?"

There was a challenge in his tone she couldn't resist. "I prefer them to be seasoned."

"Ah, you look for experience."

Her lips twitched. "Among other things."

"Then the nobles of court must be falling over themselves to acquire conquests." His eyes danced with suppressed mirth.

"It's a good thing you've already made your conquests, Ben - I wouldn't condone another while you here."

"Not even one?"

"No."

It was his turn to have his lips quirk. "Not even if that conquest is you?"

The husky way his question caressed her verbally made her shiver and shift in her place, sudden heat threading through her system as if it had been a physical touch. She was forced to swallow hard before meeting his gaze head on, issuing a silent challenge. "I don't intend to be anyone's conquest. Conquest implies an interest that will wane and wander, leading to eventual dissolution. The man I finally take to my bed will not consider me a conquest, but a treasure he wishes to keep forever."

"You're your father's daughter, Allana." He lifted his glass in salute, "and I wouldn't consider you a conquest; I never have."

"Then what do you consider me?"

"A rare and unique honor to know." Leaning forward, he clinked the edge of his glass against hers. "And a privilege to count among my friends."

Regarding him for a moment, she wondered if he could say anything else that would make her throat close the way he'd continued to do so over dinner. "Can I tell you a secret?"

"Always."

"I want what my father and Jaina have, Ben," she regarded him fully, so he wouldn't misunderstand her. "I want to be the most important person in yo-..." The hitch in her words as she stopped herself drew an understanding look - one she hadn't dared to hope for."In _someone's_ life that they put me, not my crown first. I want to be _loved_ the way my father loves Jaina - and love the way she does him. What I don't want is a cozy, friendly agreement between friends or even strangers simply because someone else says it's necessary - it's the reason I haven't yet taken a consort."

_And it's the reason I've been waiting for you._

They stared at each other in solemn silence, her unspoken words seeming to hang in the air and Ben finally inclined his head in silent acknowledgment of what had been said - and unsaid.

"Your secret is safe with me - as is anything else you entrust to my care."

For the first time since his return, she was beginning to believe it.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Ben and Allana had lingered over dinner, reluctant to leave the privacy the roof had afforded and the friendly atmosphere that had prevailed through dinner. True, there had been an undercurrent of awareness between them, but it had simmered back to a manageable level once Ben had retreated.

Allana found she wished he hadn't.

This would all have been easier if he'd simply seduce her and get it over with, putting an end to the tension between them. Even as she'd thought it as Ben bid her good night at her apartment door, she wondered if she was crazy. She'd loved Ben as he was, and while time had changed him, it hadn't changed the rapport between them. Nor had it changed him fundamentally. He was older, a little wiser - but they were still well matched.

At least, they seemed to be.

"Ben?"

He was watching her watch him in silence, the lights of the Palace highlighting his hair and bringing out the golden undertones in the red. It looked like molten copper, except it didn't feel like it. "I had fun tonight."

"Me too." She didn't want their evening to end - but she didn't dare invite him in yet... did she?

As she hesitated, Ben took both of her hands in his and slowly lifted them. "I'm glad." Her eyes widened in surprise as he brushed a soft, intimate kiss against one set of knuckles and then the other - and made the choice for her. "Good night, Allana."

"I... would-?"

Ben was already shaking his head, a half smile on his lips softening his rejection of the offer that stuck in her throat, seeming to know what she was going to ask. "Someday you'll ask without hesitation and I'll accept. But not tonight." Dropping her hands, he let his fingers caress hers for a moment, his look searing her to the core. "Sleep well, Twitch; I'll be dreaming of you."

Whatever reservations Allana had held were being battered down one at a time by his persistence and understanding. He wanted her to be herself - something she struggled against daily to avoid having her people turn on her - but he made it so easy. In his company she didn't worry about the idle gossip or what was appropriate; she could just be herself and enjoy it.

It remained to be seen, however, what he would think when he saw her method of ruling over her subjects. It was only a matter of time until he was exposed to it and a part of her was dreading that revelation. Would he still believe her to be the same woman he'd been getting to know today or would he consider her a heartless, jaded harpy as some of her people secretly believed her to be?

Ben stopped at the end of the hallway, glancing back to find her watching him. He flashed her a boyishly endearing smile that was at odds with the distinctly _un-boyish_ intent in his gaze and a whisper of a touch suddenly grazed the nape of her neck. He winked at her and disappeared, taking the telekinetic caress with him.

With her heart thundering, Allana ducked into her rooms and closed the door behind her, leaning against them as she tilted her head back against the solid surface. Her eyes drifted closed as she easily conjured that last image of him and his words as he'd held her hands.

He'd be dreaming of her.

A delicious shiver raced up her spine and she resisted the urge to hug herself in sudden girlish glee. Queen Mother's did not, even in private, succumb to such shocking behavior. Or did they? Laughter bubbled through her lips as she opened her eyes to the darkened room, giving into the impulse as she hugged herself and spun away from the door.

The flash and _zing_ of a blaster bolt as it went careening past her ear was accompanied by the smell of burnt hair as it severed one of her braids.

Allana reacted.

Her lightsaber sprang to her hand - un-ignited - as she dropped to the floor and rolled, coming to rest behind one of the sofas in her sitting room. Her body went from the euphoric state of arousal to tense anticipation of physical action within heartbeats, the languor of the evening draining from her systems as adrenaline pumped through her veins.

Inhaling softly, she listened, stretching her senses out to her room. Blankness returned to her along with a buzzing she didn't recognize on the edge of her senses. The buzzing was distracting, sucking vital focus as she forced herself to search with her senses.

The blaster bolt had been silenced, indicating the use of some kind of illegal method for suppressing the sound and the flash from the bolt leaving the muzzle. Someone in her bedroom meant business. No sound drifted to her, the silence in the room no doubt intended to unnerve and spook her into action. Holding perfectly still, Allana called on the Force and inhaled, stopping her breathing as she focused on the immediate area around her.

Nothing.

Extending the focus of her senses, she stretched further but the buzzing was interfering with her concentration and interfering on her ability to focus. Then, suddenly the buzzing was gone - and icy fingers settled over her heart as it felt as if blinders had been dropped about her, her contact to the Force severed. Staying where she was, she exhaled slowly, trying to ignore the fact her heart rate had kicked up and was suddenly slamming into her ribs, she listened.

Using her senses without their Force enhancements wasn't nearly as effective, but it was all she had and she mentally prepared herself to face an unknown number of foes without the ally that would have evened the odds. Suddenly, she wished she _had_ invited Ben in, but not for the reasons she'd previously entertained. With or without the Force, Ben was an able ally.

As it was she was on her own.

* * *

><p>Ben whistled a slightly off key tune as he strode away from Allana's quarters, his thoughts on the young woman he'd left - with difficulty - at her door. She'd been delightful company tonight, more so than he remembered, and being returned to her side was as euphoric as he remembered.<p>

Fortunately, things were shifting in his favor.

Allana's defenses were slowly disappearing as he kept her off balance from one second to the next and next to none of the charm that he'd often been accused of having an overabundance of was necessary. She wanted _him_ - not the image people, women in particular - expected to see. It was such a refreshing change to simply be himself, to let his actions be governed by his conscience and his heart for once and not by expectation.

Looking back, he wondered if - he'd been born to someone other than Luke and Mara Skywalker - he would have been able to understand Allana as well as he did.

And understand her he did, better than she knew. He'd watched her career - unbeknownst to her - blossom and unfold. He'd silently cheered her on as she'd stepped into the role for which she'd been born just weeks after arriving on Hapes - and made her presence felt immediately. Allana at any age had been a force to be reckoned with.

Now, in the throes of womanhood - all grown up - he found he wasn't quite sure what exactly to do with her. Oh, he knew what he _wanted_ to do with her, but he couldn't very well throw her over his shoulder for a week alone in a secluded cabin somewhere beyond everything and keep her in bed - or at least naked - for the whole time. Someone of her status couldn't simply disappear.

Plans needed to be made, contingencies set, a security detail assigned - all of it, despite the fact she was a fully trained and Knighted Jedi.

Shaking his head, Ben wondered if this path was folly. Allana had no end of suitors, no shortage of men who would win both her hand and her heart - except she hadn't chosen one of them. Not one, in all this time - and his chest hurt with the thought, both humbled and elated. She hadn't said so as of yet, but he knew she'd been waiting for him to come and keep his promise, to prove to her that what he felt wasn't fleeting for temporary.

The fact she'd had to rescue him and bring him here in a coffin shaped box didn't help things.

Of course, she didn't seem to realize it yet, but he wasn't going anywhere. True, he wasn't back up to full strength, but providing he had access to his Force abilities, he was as strong as he needed to be. Casting his thoughts back to where Allana was likely crawling into bed - an image he couldn't think about if he wanted to sleep tonight - Ben frowned when he couldn't find her.

Stopping, he half turned back towards her door, focusing more fully on the area of the palace where Allana's chambers were - and fear curled through his gut. A Force-free bubble encircled a part of that area and he was willing to bet Allana was within it. Someone was forcing her to face them without her Force abilities.

Cursing, he raised his voice. "_Guards! To Arms!_"

The guards appeared in the corridors as Ben took off at a run back the way he'd come. His footsteps pounded on the polished floors as he took corners recklessly, pushing abused muscles to respond more completely. He was sore from the day's exertions - more than he'd ever admit to Allana - and his body cried out for rest; he refused to listen.

Everything within him screamed that Allana was in danger, that she was at risk, and his body's needs would simply have to wait. Augmenting his strength with the Force, he called out instructions as he went. "Someone find the Prince consort; the Queen Mother is in danger!"

Those words galvanized the guards in the corridors like nothing else could.

Racing to do his bidding, they split into two groups - those that followed and those that fled to mobilize the rest of the guards. It was a well planned strategy and each reacted without hesitation. Ben turned the final corridor to Allana's chambers and headed straight for the door, Zekk's borrowed lightsaber in his hand.

There was a scream - a female scream - from within the chamber as they stopped outside the portal and Ben acted, unable to wait for whatever plan the guards had been drilled. Reaching out one hand towards the doors, Ben stretched to the Force, able to feel where it stopped just yards inside the door, and pushed it out of his mind. Focusing on the doors, he wrapped the Force about them, picturing them in his mind as being grasped in one massive, invisible hand, and _pulled_.

There was an agonized groan as the hinges on the door protested, the sound of cracking marble, but they didn't move, only trembled under the power of his pull. Someone had reinforced the doors against Force users. With a growl, Ben _crushed_ the fist in his mind and was gratified to see the doors warp in their frame, screeching in counterpoint to the sudden sound of a lightsaber igniting within the room - and meeting a second blade.

A cry in a voice that was this time familiar almost broke Ben's concentration just as the doors were about to give. Hauling back with the invisible hand that held the doors, Ben lunged in, the green blade flashing in swift, precise strokes. The center of the door parted, flying out into the hall to crash against the far wall - but Ben was inside before they struck.

"Allana!"

"Ben!"

Her voice came from somewhere to his left as blaster bolts flashed from the darkness and Ben's blade came up, deflecting them harmlessly towards the floor. He spun to the side, just out of the hole he'd cut, unable to see within the darkened room. No longer the tempting target he'd been, he briefly allowed the surge of relief he'd felt at hearing her voice wash over him.

She was still alive - for now.

"Get out of here, Ben."

"No way, Twitch," his words were harsh. "Not unless you're with me."

"Damn fool!" her voice took on a harsh edge - the edge she took when speaking to her subjects. "I have no intention of seeing you dead!"

The sound of her lightsaber crossing another drew his head around as two blades - both cyan - met, crossed, and then one dipped in for an impossibly swift strike the Force bubble should have prevented.

Stretching out, Ben's blood ran cold. He could feel Allana's opponent, but not her. Whomever wore the nutrient pack was keeping her within its influence, but not allowing it to touch her opponent. Allana's stifled cry of pain as the lightsaber touched flesh was accompanied with the extinguishing of her blade.

"_Allana!_"

She remained silent, but Ben suspected it was so her opponent wouldn't know her location rather than the fact it had been a killing blow. The arc of the lightsaber had indeed indicated that her opponent was toying with her, attempting to pain her, to wound her - and the presence of the Force-null bubble indicated an individual who had no intention of allowing a fair fight.

Unfortunately for Ben, the moment he stepped within the Force-null bubble, he would be next to useless. As it was, he couldn't see-

The lights flickered on and then died - but it was enough to give him a glimpse of the room and Allana's attackers. The fellow with the nutrient pack was standing next to one wall, crouched near the floor beside the shielded window.

A perfect hiding place - without lights.

The momentary light also revealed that their attackers were wearing night vision specs and dressed in shadow outfits - clothing that would use the darkness to their advantage. The light spurt would have momentarily blinded them both and Ben lunged into the Force Bubble, using the momentum gained from the Force-assisted jump to carry him through the air.

A soft body and with a metallic rail across the chest cushioned his fall as his flight drove him straight into the man with the nutrient rack. Another blaster bolt came his way and he cried out as it connected, driving one arm up and around into the jaw of the man on which he'd landed. The _crack _of the man's head hitting the wall was satisfactory as Ben reached around him desperately for the little creature responsible for this whole Force-less mess even as he felt a burning in his shoulder from where the bolt had struck.

His hands came away empty and, before he could think about it, Ben drove his lightsaber down and to the side through the body of the would-be assassin, taking the nutrient frame out with it. An awful shriek of a creature dying was audible and echoed through the room... and the Force rushed back with a vengeance.

The lights flashed on as the guards poured through the entrance to the room - and Ben forced himself to his feet. With the Force once again at his beck and call, he used it to bolster his strength and ignore the pain as he took in the tableau before him.

Allana lay prone on the ground, her head twisted to the side, deep lightsaber gouges in all four limbs. Her lightsaber was still in her hand, but she hadn't the strength or the muscle control to lift it. Her attacker stood before her, wild red hair a nimbus about her face, somewhere during the fight, she'd lost her night goggles and two toned gray eyes - identical the eyes of the woman prone on the floor - stared with wild elation as she raised the blade for the kill.

Ben reacted without thinking, lunging in with a roar as he caught the villain unawares, driving his lightsaber blade deep into her chest. The woman staggered, suddenly seeming to become aware of other people in the room. She let out a cry in a twisted variation of Allana's voice, the wordless keen raising the hairs on the back of Ben's neck. She swung her lightsaber, even with his own planted in her chest, and caught him off guard.

_"Ben!"_

Ben crumpled to the ground, taking Zekk's lightsaber with him. Allana screamed, the strange woman screamed, almost counterpoints as the guards added blaster fire to the awesome wounds the attacker had suffered.

Allana's tear-filled voice was a shriek as she screamed for Ben, her muscles twitching as she struggled to move towards him, but refusing to heed her commands. "_Ben! BEN!"_ She could see he lay awkwardly, in no pose a human should be able to assume as tears streaked down her cheeks. "Answer me Skywalker!"

Ben didn't move, and she couldn't see if his chest rose or not. The Force eluded her grasp when suddenly familiar hands were lifting her from the floor. "Allana - thank the Force."

"Daddy!" She trembled in his grasp, but her gaze never left Ben's prone form. She couldn't have found him just to lose him again. "Ben's... he's... Come on Ben, answer me!"

Zekk rose to his feet with his daughter in his grasp and carried her to where Ben had fallen, kneeling beside the young man who had just saved her life. Reaching out one hand, his expression cautiously neutral, Zekk flipped Ben onto his back.

A long, deep slash from the villain's blade ran diagonally across his chest - but from this angle, Allan could see how it shallowly rose and fell.

"_Medic!_" Zekk's voice carried easily over the din in her chambers, drawing immediate attention as he took control. "Get this man to the med bay stat!"

"Yes sir!"

Allana protested as her father rose to his feet. "I want to stay with him."

"You need a bacta tank, Allana."

"I don't care, I need to make sure he'd alright, I need-"

"What you need," Zekk told her pointedly, pausing as he turned back so she could see what was going on with Ben. "Is a good night's sleep after the medics look at you and put you in a tank. We can't do anything more for Ben right now."

"But..." She bit her lip, tears still sliding down her cheeks as she stared at where Ben was being tended by three medics. One was busy hooking him up to a monitoring device while another two were sliding bars underneath him so they could put him on the hover stretcher. "He can't die, daddy."

Her words weren't those of a Queen, but the longing wish of Zekk's little girl looking for reassurance. He hugged her tightly as Ben was moved to the stretcher. "He's human like the rest of us Allana."

"No... please no..."

Stroking her hair, Zekk tucked her head under his chin as the Medics pushed the stretcher around the tumbled furniture in Allana's suite and headed for the hole Ben had cut in the door to enter. Zekk and Allana watched as they pushed him past, his skin holding a gray tint both knew to be bad. Allana stifled a sob, turning her face to Zekk's chest.

"He saved me." Her words were choked. "He sacrificed himself for me."

Zekk's grip tightened. "A man only hopes that if he must die, he does it in defense of a loved one, Allana. Ben loves you - and tonight he's proved it."

With a tilt of her head, Allana was able to watch the stretcher was it disappeared around the corner, taking the man who held her heart with it. "He never had to prove it," she told him, almost unable to get the words out. "I always knew. I was just so afraid..."

Zekk readjusted his grip on his daughter and stepped from her room, heading for the medical bay and the young man who'd been willing to give his life to ensure Allana had a chance to live her own. He was silent for a good portion of the way, turning what he knew over in his mind and finally, as he exited the last turbo lift on the floor with the medical bay, he broke the silence between them, her fearful tears driving him to speak.

"Love is about trust Allana and about risk. Ben was willing to risk his life because he loves you, would you risk anything less?"

"I wouldn't risk it," she told him as she struggled to stem her tears. "I would give it - in a heartbeat."

"Then why, Twitch," Zekk asked, deliberately using Ben's nickname for her, "are you holding back? Wouldn't it make more sense to live your life with him, than to surrender it and live without?"

Allana closed her eyes as Zekk stepped into the medical ward and surrendered her to the medics, unable and unwilling to answer her father's question. The use of Ben's nickname, so foreign on someone else's tongue, had reached out to grab her heart in a painful grip.

Her father was right. If she was willing to give her life for him, there was no reason to be afraid of living it with him. Already weakened from his ordeal on Gallinore, this new trauma might be one Ben wouldn't be capable of rebounding from and the thought was unbearable.

It was also her last conscious thought as the Medic jabbed a sedative into her arm and drove her into unconsciousness.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Zekk left Allana and Ben in the hands of the medics, stopping only long enough to place them both into healing trances they couldn't fight under the effects of the drugs.

Heading back to Allana's quarters, he found several of her personal guard stationed outside the doors, and they inclined their heads respectfully at his approach. If it had to do with the dark expression he wore, or the fact he was Allana's father he didn't know - and nor did he care.

"No one has entered the suite, as per your orders, Prince Consort," said one, her words clipped. "And no one has moved the body of the assassin."

With a curt nod, Zekk ducked into the suits - and stopped. Surveying the damage, he shied away from the blood spatters on the carpet, and looked instead to the bodies of the two individuals who had almost cost him his daughter. The male wasn't Hapan; a single glance in that direction showed him to have the sallow coloring of one who spends no time in the sun.

It was a shading Zekk was familiar with. Dismissing the body of the man, Zekk moved towards the body of the woman with the red hair and gray eyes.

She looked like Allana, except her face was twisted in a grotesque mask of pain and triumph. Ben's attack had caught her completely off guard and, for that, Zekk was grateful. If Ben hadn't intervened when he had, Allana would now be dead. Instead, her would-be Assassin was - and Zekk didn't have a clue who she was.

The resemblance was uncanny though and next to identical. Zekk had seen enough clones in his time to consider the possibility, but where would they have gotten the DNA strand? He'd heard about Master Luke's encounter in Mount Tantiss on Wayland - it was practically required material now - but it had taken Luke's severed hand to create that clone.

Kneeling next to the body, Zekk reached up to close the sightless eyes that were so much like Allana's, and so very similar to the tones in his own. It was almost like he had lost a daughter; but Allana had been an only child and Tenel Ka would certainly have mentioned if she had a sister.

"Zekk?"

"Over here, Jay."

Jaina advanced slowly into the room, one hand on her distended belly, the other at the small of her back as she regarded him with concern.

Zekk rose to his feet with a shake of his head. "You shouldn't be on your feet so much."

"How could I stay abed knowing you were dealing with this?"

Scooping his wife into his arms, Zekk settled her on the nearby sofa so she could watch him work, dropping a soft kiss on her lips. "Thank you."

Her smile was slightly strained, but genuine, as she propped her feet up and he returned to the corpse. Retaking his previous pose, Zekk went down on one knee and began re-examining the damages.

Allana's lightsaber had scored a lucky hit here or there, but the assassin's blade had been far more precise with its almost surgical and deliberate severing of key muscle groups. Allana's injuries were bad and while he was here, checking into the person who'd caused them, the medical personnel were downstairs trying to reattach tissues severed by a lightsaber's blade.

It wasn't an easy thing and Zekk had to force his mind back to the here and now. The medics would do everything they could for his daughter; he needed to figure out who had sent such a well planned attack and eliminate them before they became even more deadly.

"Allana didn't have a twin, did she?"

That Jaina had considered the possibility was no surprise to him. "Tenel Ka never mentioned one, no."

"That doesn't mean it couldn't have happened."

"Sister set against sister?" Zekk glanced at her and shook his head. "Even Hapans-"

"Wrong," Jaina cut him off with an apologetic smile. "Especially Hapans, Zekk. Hypothetically, if Allana had been born a twin and is the older of the two, Hapan custom would dictate that she's the heir. The younger sister would have been given to a trusted Palace servant to be raised in the shadows."

"But where and by whom?"

"I don't know enough about it."

Lifting a cloak someone had dropped from near the body of the assassin, Zekk covered the body and rose to his feet. "I know someone who will. Come on; let's go find Isolder."

* * *

><p>Jaina refused to be left behind for the meeting with Isolder, and Zekk refused to go ahead, so they made their way at a slow pace towards the wing where the former Prince Consort now spent his time. Mostly, Zekk used the old soldier as a source of much needed information for the defense of Hapes. Today, it was a different kind of defense and one that could very well save his daughter's life in the near future.<p>

Guardsmen were stationed at every corner, Allana's wing completely off limits to anyone not on their rotation along with a heavy presence at the medical bay. Jaina stopped by the medical lab for a few minutes before resuming the walk with Zekk towards Isolder's quarters. She was paler than when she'd entered and Zekk waited patiently for the questions to start - and Jaina being Jaina, didn't make him wait long.

"A lightsaber wielding assassin?"

Zekk nodded curtly. "With an assistant wearing an ysalamiri nutrient pack and night vision goggles. This was a well planned attack - and one that would have succeeded if Ben hadn't stepped in."

"He's in pretty rough shape."

"They both are," Zekk turned a corner, extending his arm unconsciously to his wife as she struggled to keep up with his faster pace, and moderated it to remain at her side. "Ben... might not make it, Jaina."

"He will," Jaina returned with conviction, her eyes sparkling. "He saved Allana so... it stands to reason he's going to want to be here for his reward."

Stopping abruptly, Zekk turned to face her, his expression dark. "Allana may never walk or use her arms again while Ben had a gash the length of my arm across his chest and two finger width's deep and a puncture where the blade entered his lung. I don't-"

"Zekk." Jaina squeezed her arm, stepping close as she reached up to cup his face with her hand. "It's okay. They're alive. They're hurt, and it will take some time to recover, but they're _alive_. You know as well as I do that if one survives, the other is going to feel compelled to exceed that expectation. Even now, maybe especially now, their competitive streak with one another is their greatest asset."

Turning his head, he allowed Jaina's cool fingers to cup and sooth his cheek, his chest tight with emotion as he met her gaze. "I could have lost her."

Jaina pulled him down by a faint pressure against his cheek and reached to cup his face with her other hand. "You didn't. She'll recover, Zekk. Allana _will_ recover. She'd determined, she's resourceful - and because she'll recover, she'll ensure Ben does to."

"I hope...I..." Zekk closed his eyes, seeming to fold in on himself. Jaina caught him as he enveloped her in a tight desperate hug, seeking reassurance and drawing on her strength. It was times like these he hated that Allana had followed in her mother's footsteps - and conveniently forgot that she wouldn't have been any safer in the traditional role of Jedi Knight.

Holding tightly to one another, Zekk was still careful not to hug her too hard. "Thank you, Jay."

"You'd do the same for me," she kissed him softly before pulling back. "Allana's a fighter - you raised her that way - to give up wouldn't be in her nature."

"Unless she doesn't think Ben will make it."

Jaina released him reluctantly as he straightened. "She may love Ben, but she knows he's not the only one depending on her. She's the Queen Mother, a big sister and an adored daughter. As much as it would hurt to lose him, she has her support net right here and she knows it."

"And Ben doesn't, I take it?"

With a shrug, Jaina set them back on the path to Isolder. "Ben will recover if she does. My cousin may be a bit of the gallant hero type, but he's also determined to get the girl in this instance. You know as well as I do where they spent this evening."

Zekk rubbed one hand across the back of his neck. "Not exactly inventive, your cousin."

Jaina laughed softly. "He can be, but he wasn't fully recovered from Gallinore's hospitality. I don't think he'll make a miraculous recovery, but I do think Allana's presence will encourage him to try."

"I hope you're right, Jay." Stopping in front of the door leading into the library in the wing where Isolder's quarters were located he glanced down at her. "You don't have to be here for this."

"Are you kidding?" She looked affronted. "It's not every day you lean on me. Since you grew up, I find you need me less and le-"

Zekk cut her off silencing her with a kiss that lingered long enough to leave little doubt to just how much he needed her. "Never. I'll always need you."

Her lips quirked. "Charmer."

"Nope. Just honest." He corrected, keeping his arm about her waist, his hand splayed across her hip, as he opened the door. "Isolder?"

There was silence within the library for long seconds before a muffled voice came back.

"Zekk? Is that you?"

Leading Jaina into the dim interior, he searched the rows upon rows of holo novel shelves and databanks. "Where are you, Isolder?"

"In Obscure Hapan Law. Aisle five, sub section two."

Zekk took the lead, having to release his wife as they picked their way through the narrow rows towards the section Isolder had quoted. They found him kneeling before a databank encoder, multi-tool in hand, correcting one of the decoder settings.

"Zekk," the older man glanced up and smiled. "Jaina too I see. Maybe you can give me a hand with this blasted thing. Ships are more my specialty and it's giving me grief."

Zekk held his hand out for the multi tool and took Isolder's place as the other man rose to his feet, his knees and back cracking as he stretched. "What's in here that you're trying to reach?"

"Twin births."

The piece Zekk had grabbed almost snapped off in his hand as he jerked and he had to consciously force himself to release his grip. Slowly, he checked over the part, relieved to see he hadn't permanently damaged it. "You've heard."

"I made a point to know," Isolder corrected. "As Allana's only living grandparent, the guards naturally assumed you would come to me and that I should be prepared."

A reluctant smile kicked up the corner of Zekk's mouth. "Sit down before you fall down old man; have you slept at all in the last forty eight hours?"

"With the palace abuzz thanks to my only granddaughter's activities and her _exclusive_ and _private_ time being focused on the only male who's managed to catch her undivided attention - except you of course - since arriving?" Isolder snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm too keyed up to sleep."

"Everyone has to sleep sometime," Jaina rationalized. "And I doubt you've simply been listening to gossip for two days."

"Watching it is more likely," Zekk corrected as he twisted on one of the rotors at the base of the unit. "Some besotted slicer hooked up a feed for him ages ago so he could stay abreast of his mother's machinations."

"Whatever happened to her?"

"Ta'a Chume?" Isolder glanced at Jaina questioningly.

"No, the slicer."

"She found out about my mother."

Jaina laughed, shaking her head at his dry tone of voice. "At least you got something out of it. So what do you know about twins when it comes to Hapan Law while Zekk works on shorting the units power supplies?"

"Hey!"

"Don't cross the yellow and blue, love," was Jaina's reply. "You'll short the motor and never get it working again."

Zekk grumbled about bossy wives as Jaina turned her attention back to Isolder expectantly. Isolder, for his part, was watching them in tolerant amusement with an overshadow of sadness. "Watching the two of you reminds me of Jacen and Tenel Ka - before she took the crown."

"Hopefully Jacen wasn't trying to fix something in that memory of yours." Zekk snatched his hand back as a long spark shot out towards it and the multi tool from the section he'd just reconnected. "And apparently I shouldn't be either."

The self-depreciating remark was followed by a whine and then a whir as the unit kicked back in. Isolder laughed. "Let's just say you get a happy ending and Jacen ended up covered in Tenel Ka's favorite sauce."

There were smiles all around for a moment as they pictured it, before fading and Isolder finally answered Jaina's question. "Twins are unusual in any Hapan family, but more so for the Royal bloodline. It's too... intermixed to normally allow for it."

"Except in this instance," Jaina shot a look Zekk's way in amusement. "Tenel Ka didn't intermix."

Zekk held his hands up. "Hey, I don't know about my bloodline's background. For all I know my parents were both a part of triplets."

"Easy, vent crawler," Jaina smiled faintly. "I never said anything about that. It's possible because of Tenel Ka's strong half-Dathomiri heritage, and your completely unknown one, that something happened no one was expecting. If Allana _is_ a twin then the girl on her floor is her identical twin; which makes it your fault."

"Sure, blame the stray." Zekk looked pointedly at her distended belly. "Finger pointing aside, what happens with a twin should they occur?"

"I've only heard rumors," Isolder admitted, nodding to the machine Zekk had been fixing. "I was hoping to have the chance to confirm or debunk them before you arrived."

Jaina waved the boys away as she settled her girth before the unit. "Go chat; I'll see what I can find."

"You just want to have the cushy job."

She didn't deny it. "I'll let you know if I find anything."

Isolder and Zekk wandered away, into the main seating area of the library, and Isolder glanced back. "She won't break anything, will she?"

"If she does, she'll give it back to you in better shape than it was before." Zekk brought them back to the topic at hand. "What do you know about twins, Isolder?"

The former Hapan Prince Consort sighed. "Very little, but I do know the eldest is kept with their mother while the younger of the two is normally spirited away before their mother is aware of their existence."

"The medic wouldn't have told her?"

"Goes against protocol. If they catch it early enough, they'll abort the smaller of the fetus to avoid having questions arise in the order of succession."

"That doesn't hurt the other baby?"

"It can," Isolder acknowledged quietly. "If the Hapan Queen knows of the twins, there were stories handed down as to the aborting of both and the castrating of the male who'd sired them. I don't know if that's fact or fiction, though."

"Probably both," Zekk's reply was dry. "I don't put anything past your ancestors."

"Neither do I. Regardless, if both are carried to term, the second child is trained outside the palace by the father's relatives. If that's not an option, she's treated as a foundling."

"And if there are twin boys?"

"They're more useful alive," Isolder informed him with a quirk of his lips. "Two bargaining chips for the price of one - again rumor, but I've heard it been said the affected Queen Mother has rewarded the male responsible handsomely."

"One of the few times it's better to sire a male than a female."

The shrug of the other man's shoulders was non committal. "Substantiating the claim would be nearly impossible - the story I know is almost five hundred years old."

"And like most good stories, I'm sure the grain of truth it contains is long lost." Zekk sighed. "Even if the medics keep this kind of thing from the Queen Mothers, there's no way Tenel Ka wouldn't have been aware she was carrying twins."

"Ah, because she was Force sensitive?" Isolder looked amused. "Even the Force has a sense of humor, or so I'm told. Darth Vader didn't know he had a daughter - he believed Luke to be his only child and it's said Vader was stronger than any Jedi before his fall. It's possible Tenel Ka could have carried twins and been unaware of it as her strengths, as in all things, ran towards the Force's offensive uses."

"She was too good of a hunter not to know to use her senses," Zekk argued logically. "Unless she knew what would happen and chose to deliberately refrain from it."

"That is possible," The concession was thoughtful. "Tenel Ka had been educated by my mother in what to expect when it came time to conceive her child. Twins would have certainly been spoken about."

"A shame we can't ask her then."

"Can you not?"

Both men whirled at the sound of the familiar voice - one they hadn't heard in two decades.

"Tenel Ka!"

"Father," she inclined her head, the blue aura shimmering.

"Are you well?"

"I am dead." Bluntness was ever her way of speaking - even in death. "I will keep this brief as my time is limited. Allana is not a twin."

"You're positive?"

Tenel Ka nodded once, decisively. "No matter how... diligent we were to ensure her conception, Zekk, of that I am certain."

"Not even a small, glimmer of a doubt?"

"You would prefer Ben killed her twin sister?" The Force ghost arched an eyebrow. "There is a different plot here, but you may eliminate the possibility of Allana having been a twin."

"Thank you." Zekk mentally breathe a sigh of relief. He felt a little awkward standing before the woman who'd given him Allana. "How's Jacen?"

"Repenting. He will one day absolve himself of his guilt."

"And have you absolved him?"

"He was never perfect. One does not conditionally love; something our daughter has not yet learned to accept."

Tenel Ka, as always, understated the problem. Zekk sighed, glancing towards the row where Jaina still worked. "Jaina's here, if you wish to see her."

"I cannot." Tenel Ka's words were laced with regret. "Seek the secrets of your time on Hapes, Zekk. There you will find your answers."

The ghost vanished before either Isolder or Zekk could say anything else.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Warmth enveloped her when Allana regained consciousness, the wet heat of bacta surrounding her utterly and completely, the mask fixed firmly in place about her mouth and nose to prevent inadvertent inhalation. The brief costume she wore was light on her skin and her fingers tingled where blood flow was limited. A quick glance around showed she wasn't the only one in bacta and the reassuring dark shadow of another body in the next tank over lifted her spirits.

They didn't put the dead in bacta.

_Ben..._

Lifting one hand slowly, she placed her fingers against the glass of the tank in a futile attempt to reach him; she knew it was futile, but that didn't stop her from reaching anyway. She couldn't see him clearly, but she could picture him the way she'd seen him when she'd last come to find him here. He'd be dressed briefly, all that tanned and toned muscle on display for everyone to see.

Jealousy came from nowhere and she banished it with a frighteningly concerted effort. Ben was in bacta; he couldn't be draped in robes. The fact he was in the bacta at all meant he stood a good chance of recovery and he wouldn't have been given that chance if they thought he would die.

The tingling in her extremities brought her attention back to her own predicament and she turned her attention to her own injuries. Unable to see more than lines of pink - healing flesh surrounding long lines of stitchery where flesh was slowly re-growing over barely concealed muscle - she considered how long she would have had to been in the tank to re-grown what flesh was obviously new.

Safety precautions and health factors would mean pulling her from the healing fluid every day for several hours to give her body a chance of exposure to bacteria and other natural air born motes and mites to avoid derailing her immune system. Still, it wouldn't mean they'd pull her out at the same time as Ben - and he hadn't a clue if she'd recently been reinserted, or was due; or even how long she'd been in.

The effort of staying awake was too much, her body already taxed from using all of its strength to heal, and she slipped away once more.

* * *

><p><em>"Put them together."<em>

_"But... sire, are you certain that's wise?"_

_"With the Queen Mother indisposed, her powers fall to me. You dare question that?"_

_"I wouldn't dare."_

_"Put them together. They're weak as newborns - and the contact will comfort them."_

_"They won't be aware of it."_

_"Do it anyway; it's what they'd want. It's what _she_ would want."_

_"Yes sir, however ill advised I think it may be. If they should wake together-"_

_"They'll be ecstatic."_

_"Then this is a standing order, sir?"_

_"Until they're both conscious once more; then they can decide if arrangements are to their liking."_

_"Immediately, sire."_

* * *

><p>Zekk rubbed the back of his neck as he settled into a chair in the living room of his suite and tilted his head back against the head rest. It was late - or was it early when the sun was coming up and you hadn't been to bed yet? - and he was exhausted. Bone weary, he didn't dare close his eyes, catching the sight of the main bed room door out of the corner of his eye. If he didn't have to go back out to speak with the guards and the medics in less than an hour, he would have been tempted to join his wife.<p>

As it was, he'd had to pry her away from the console she'd been glued to six hours ago and she needed her sleep. This stage of her pregnancy wasn't easy and she slept light; even now he could feel the faint awareness about her and soothed her unconsciously. Jaina was as restless as he, but she couldn't just think of herself at a time like this; their child had to be her first concern, just as Zekk's first born was his own.

Things were not going as he'd hoped. Tenel Ka's 'help' had been cryptic at best - just like she had sometimes been through life - and his own time on Hapes was questionable. He hadn't spent a great deal of it without the Solo Twins or Tenel Ka, and he didn't exactly understand what she'd meant. The girl Allana had fought was too... _identical _to be her sister if not a twin. He was still waiting on the DNA analysis - which was on hold as the medics attempted to save Allana and Ben - but a suspicions had already formed in his mind.

"Daddy?"

Zekk's head came around and his was on his feet in seconds, moving towards the toddler's side. Jacen's hair was a mess - sticking up every which way just like his name-sake's used to - and he had his thumb in his mouth. Scooping his son into his arms, Zekk hugged him. "Hey kiddo. What're you doing up?"

"Lana hurt?"

"That's right." How Jacen had 'heard' wasn't hard to guess. People often didn't curb their tongues around children, forgetting they understood more than they seemed to. "She's very hurt. A bad lady wanted to make her go away for good, but your cousin Ben wouldn't let her."

Dark eyes so much like Jaina's stared at him solemnly. "Me see Lana?"

Wishing he could, but not willing to subject his son to his daughter's injuries, he regretfully shook his head. "Not tonight, Jacen."

"Why?"

"Because it's too early and you should be sleeping."

"Why?"

"Because it's still your bed time and Mommy needs her rest."

"Why?"

"Because of the baby, big brother." Striding towards the adjacent room with Jacen balanced on his hip, Zekk opened the door and stepped in. A soft night light weakly illuminated the area around the door and he clicked the light on.

"Daddy, down!"

He placed his son on the ground - and the obedient little boy yawned and toddled towards his bed. A paternal smile full of pride crossed Zekk's lips as he watched him. The toddler wavered but persevered, gripping the little ladder Jaina had suspended at one end of his bed and pulled himself back in.

Jacen was an independent as his mother.

"Kiss?"

Zekk chuckled, dropping down to sit on the edge of the bed as he held the covers so Jacen could crawl back in. Tilting his face to his father, Jacen presented his cheek and extended his arms for a hug. Zekk obliged him with a tightness in the back of his throat. "Sleep well, kiddo. Sweet dreams."

"Night night." Jacen closed his eyes, hugging the stuffed X-wing someone had brought him - the toy of the week no doubt - and Zekk gently caressed the soft, tangled curls on his son's head.

Dropping another light kiss on the boy's forehead, Zekk rose to his feet and exited the room, clicking the lights off. He closed the door most of the way behind him - just in case Jacen needed them - and was stepping back into the living room when a flash of disbelief and a muffled groan came from the bedroom, the power of the Force impression making him gasp.

"Jaina!"

Darting forward, Zekk threw open the doors expecting to find another assassin - and instead found his wife curled on her side in the midst of a contraction. He was beside her in an instant, taking her hand. "Breathe, Jay."

"H... horrible... t-timing."

Laughing the much needed release, Zekk took in the soaked sheets about her with a glance. Her water had already broken. Trust Jaina to be indignant about going into labor. "Only you would think so. Hang onto me; we don't have time to wait for the medics to get to you; I'm going to take you to them."

She didn't need to be told twice as she grasped him tightly around the neck, exhaling on a hiss as another contraction rocked her small frame. Too close. She was too close. Zekk lifted her in his arms and dashed from the room; the guards would have to mind Jacen.

* * *

><p>The crying of a baby woke Allana, distorted by the liquid of the bacta.<p>

A baby.

Her younger brother or sister - or had someone else in the palace gone into labor? Her fogged brain couldn't remember if anyone else was expecting, and if they were, when. The murmur of her father's voice - a sound she would have recognized anywhere, through any barrier, gave her the answer she sought.

His voice and a baby; it had to be her new sibling; and she was in bacta. Behind the mask her lips curved into a semblance of a smile. She had a new family member, someone to meet when she got out of this awful liquid prison. Someone Ben and she could-

Ben.

Turning her head, she caught sight of the formless blob bobbing in the tank next to hers and her panic dissipated. He was still okay.

Her thoughts disjointed, they bounced back and forth between Ben and her family, especially the new member. Boy? Girl? Her parents hadn't wanted to know and now she did. Would Ben be excited? He was an only child and she'd always thought to be one too - except now she was the oldest of a trio.

Unable to sustain the mentally draining activity of thought grav ball, she slipped away before she knew any answers and never saw her father's silhouette when he walked in to check on her a couple of hours later or the smile on his face.

* * *

><p><em>"The tissue damage has been corrected and the stimuli to ensure re-growth is promising. There may still be a slight limp in one leg as one of the gashes was more severe than the other, but overall the diagnosis is promising."<em>

_"And Jedi Skywalker?"_

_"The Queen Mother has woken up several times during treatment. Jedi Skywalker has yet to regain consciousness. Until this happens, his outlook is grim."_

No!

_"You're certain?"_

_"His physical injuries are healing, sire, which indicates his body is still alive, but the will to live may not be present."_

_"Is he aware of the Queen Mother's condition?"_

_"We... cannot be certain. We have tried informing him hourly that her condition improves, but there is no way to know if he truly hears us."_

_"Keep trying. Even if he doesn't understand now, he might eventually and once he does, it _should_ bring him out of it."_

_"Yes sire."_

* * *

><p>The outlook of the medics for the Queen mother's condition was hopeful. She was recovering well and only days away from being released from the bacta tank and placed into medical observation as her body recovered from the wounds. Rehabilitation was batted about, and Zekk made a point of being in any meeting considering Allana or Ben's extended care.<p>

Jacen was often a tag along to give Jaina a chance to rest between feedings. That their young son was fascinated by the baby would be an understatement and Jaina had finally ordered Zekk to keep him out for a couple of days so she could sleep while the baby did. Zekk, ever the solicitous husband, did as she asked and turned Allana's care into a puzzle for Jacen to watch.

Surprisingly, it had been the toddler who asked if Allana had been able to touch Ben - not in so many words of course, but the gist of it had been there. Intrigued by the idea, the medics, when they next pulled a semi-unconscious Allana from the tank had set up a rig to let her lie above the other bacta tank. Using the hatch at the top of the tank, they slipped her hand into the other tank - and had watched as her fingers curled possessively in Ben's red locks.

On Medic had called it a latent reaction, something triggered by the tactile receivers in the fingers - until Allana's hand had slipped down over the side of Ben's face and about his exposed ear. Watching in disbelief, the Medics could only stare as the unconscious Allana's touch seemed to trigger something within their other patient.

Pulling her away and out of the room to install her in the large recovery bunk the Prince consort had insisted upon, the Medics swarmed the tank holding Ben and began to analyze the readings being pumped through the machines. A general feel of optimism rippled through the medical bay as Jacen curled close to his dad with a wide grin. Zekk hugged him back, kissing the top of his head in a silent thank you.

Jacen couldn't understand, but he'd just given his older sister the only thing she'd ever wanted.

* * *

><p>When Allana woke next it was to the soft pressure of lips against her temple and an arm around her waist.<p>

The scent of bacta lingered in the air, testament to the fact she hadn't been out of the tank long - and that her bed mate had also been immersed. The solvent used to clean the goop from one's body never succeeded in completely removing the smell and the slight tang to the scent was telling. Shifting, she shivered and lifted her eyelids cautiously.

Dim lighting made the room bearable to eyes that had seen through a bacta induced haze for however long she'd been in and out of treatment. Soreness in her limbs was a dull throb at the edge of her consciousness - a consciousness that was almost completely focused on the chin in line with her gaze. She knew that slight cleft and the faint freckle on the left side of unfairly generous lips.

"Ben?"

His name came out croaked and she coughed at the dryness of her throat. That chin jerked down, replaced immediately by the bluest pair of eyes she thought she'd seen the last of.

"Easy Twitch," he told her softly, the hand about her waist shifting to rub her back. "You've been out for a while."

Unable to respond, Allana could do little more than ride out the coughing fit as tears flooded her eyes and streamed down her cheeks. Her fingers - splayed against his chest - curled into the light weight shirt someone had draped over him and held on tightly as she tucked her head under his chin. Ben held her, rubbing her back as she fought to breathe and speak all at the same time.

"I..." wheeze "thought" cough "you were" wheeze "dead."

A soft chuckled rumbled through his chest as he tightened his grip on her for a moment. "I think I almost was."

Her gaze flew back to his, her head tilting back at his soft reply.

Ben brushed his lips across one cheekbone. "I'd convinced myself I was too late to save you."

"Ben-"

"Hush, let me talk for a minute, okay?"

She snapped her lips shut and nodded, coughing softly as the spasm seemed to pass.

"Good." He shifted, sitting up with a wince. There was stiffness in his movements; old injuries not yet completely healed compounded by new ones - but it didn't stop him. She stayed where she was as Ben propped himself against the wall at one end of the mattress they were sharing. It wasn't really a bed, but it wasn't one of the recovery bunks either - yet they were in a recovery room. Someone, her father's doing no doubt, had ensured they would be together even when unconscious.

Ben tilted his head against the wall with a hiss, indicating he wasn't as recovered as she'd first believed, and she sat up sharply. "Are you-"

"Fine," he assured her quickly. "Just a little sore. I thought you'd died, Allana; I didn't _want_ to heal. I thought I'd failed you; that I deserved whatever injuries I'd suffered and their natural consequences were."

"What changed your mind?"

Lifting one of her hands, he ran his thumb over the knuckles. "I felt your touch."

She stared at him. "I never touched you - I was in bacta, just like you were."

"You did," his lips tilted and his fingers squeezed hers. "I'd know the feel of these calluses anywhere. You've caught my hand too many times when I've fallen for me not to." He lifted his free hand to his hair, brushing his fingers across his scalp and down one side of his face. "Here... right here. You ran your fingers through my hair and then cupped my face. The heel of your hand was on my cheek bone and your fingers on my chin as your thumb played with my ear."

Her jaw dropped. "I-"

"That touch is what brought me back, Allana." Ben reached out to cup her face. "It's what made me _want_ to wake up."

"You'd have gone on without me," her words were slightly strangled. "Even if I hadn't made it, you're stronger than that Ben."

"I used to think so too, but I've been living without you for a long time and never, not in all this time, have I ever felt so right as when I'm with you. I love you, Allana. You. Not the Queen Mother the cluster sees but Allana Djo; daughter to Jedi Zekk. The adventurous, self sacrificing, courageous warrior I left behind who's only grown and matured with time. You say you've changed; I don't disagree - but the fundamentals of who you are haven't. You've had to learn a new skill set - so have I. Life's happened and we've had to grow or risk being left behind. That growth doesn't meaning leaving who you are in the past, it means taking the best of what you were and becoming who you _want_ to be. It means-"

"Ben - shut up. Just... shut up."

* * *

><p>"Sire?"<p>

Zekk lifted his head wearily at the soft inquiry, Jacen still sleeping peacefully across his lap. For a moment he couldn't remember where he was and it must have shown in his expression. The Medic regarded him sympathetically.

"A newborn in the house is never easy. Perhaps you should find a bunk of your own?"

He shook his head. "I'm just not as young as I used to be. How's Allana; any change?"

"Her Majesty and Jedi Skywalker were resting comfortably."

"Were?"

"Several minutes ago the monitors in the room indicated they were no longer sleeping."

"Are they awake?"

"It would appear so."

Carefully shifting Jacen to the seat - where the tyke promptly curled into a ball with a soft sigh - Zekk stood and stretched. He winced as his joints cracked; he'd been sitting in that position for _far_ too long. Ah, to be young again and able to bounce back from awkward sleeping positions. "Can I see them?"

"I would advise caution," the Medic told him with a faint smile. "There is no telling just how much they remember or how much they've recovered. Jedi Skywalker is particularly injured and will need extensive treatments to ensure the damage done on Gallinore doesn't compound on his new injuries."

"And Allana?"

"She will recover."

"Fully?"

"With time and care, we are hopeful. If she shows the same determination in her recovery that she has for her reforms, she will no doubt walk one day without a limp. We cannot, however, predict what injuries - if any - will be long term on Jedi Skywalker. Until his reaction to the Queen Mother's touch, it was impossible to tell if he would live or die. His will to live seemed... minimal."

Glancing back at the sleeping Jacen, Zekk silently thanked the Force again for small miracles. Love was a strange thing sometimes. It had power even he still didn't completely understand, but he was grateful for it. "Could you keep an eye on him?"

The Medic settled into the chair he'd vacated, pulling the toddler partially into her lap. "I could use the reprieve. Remember, Sire - caution."

"I'll be the soul of discretion." Zekk promised with a faint smile. Turning, he headed for the recovery room where Allana and Ben had been placed several hours ago. With Jaina going into labor, Jacen's inspirational idea and the rest of the excitement over the last two days, Zekk wondered what Allana would think of what he'd discovered regarding her attacker - if she remembered being attacked.

Stopping outside the door, he knocked, using two knuckles to announce his presence and well aware that - had it been him and Jaina inside - he likely wouldn't have wasted much time talking once he realized they were both going to survive.

"Come in," came the muffled, slightly disgruntled call.

Suppressing a grin - he recognized that as a trait of his own - Zekk palmed open the door controls. A quick look showed his daughter in Ben's arms, her head on his chest with Ben toying with the ends of her hair in one hand.

"Dad!"

"You're looking good for someone just out of bacta, brat." Ben made to release her, but Zekk held up his hands to dissuade him. "Don't move on my account; neither of you is close to fully healed yet. The medic would never forgive me for reopening your wounds."

It was tacit, unspoken approval - and Ben's slight inclination of his head Zekk's way showed he understood Zekk's unspoken message... and appreciated it. "Thank you, sir."

"Zekk," he corrected, dryly. "No need for ceremony. May I come in?"

Allana waved him towards a chair on one side of the bed. "I never would have told you to if you weren't permitted."

"Just checking," teasing his daughter was second nature. "I wouldn't want to be interrupting anything."

"Dad…"

Taking the seat, Zekk stretched his legs out. "How're you both feeling?"

"Not dead," Ben responded dryly.

"Which means anything is an improvement?"

"Exactly." Ben shifted as Allana moved, sitting up but not moving from the circle of his arm. "Not that we're ungrateful for the company, Zekk, but is there more to your visit than just checking up on us?"

"Checking up?" Amused, Zekk shook his head. "My daughter is more than capable of making her own _adult _decisions, Skywalker; she's proven it time and time again. Allana is the _last_ person who needs checking up on."

"Get to the point, dad."

"Ah ha! I _did_ interrupt something!" Zekk didn't give her a chance to respond to the tease, holding up one hand as he smiled faintly. "I meant it; you're an adult and capable of making your own choices - and frankly, I don't want to know."

Allana glared at her father. "Get to the point," she repeated, her tone clipped.

"What do you two remember?"

"About the attack?"

Zekk nodded.

Allana and Ben shared a look. "Images," Allana ventured. "Fragments of images, really. I keep thinking I was looking into a mirror."

"Close," Zekk allowed. "Ben?"

"The same - except I wasn't fighting a mirror; I was fighting Allana."

"Which you were." Zekk ran a hand through his hair. "What do you two understand about the Force and its ability to warp time?"

"You mean time walk?"

Zekk nodded.

"Very little," Ben conceded. "My father said it was an ability few Jedi could master and even then it was so dangerous that unless you knew exactly when and _where_ you were going, you could get time lost."

"Luke pretty much told me exactly that when I contacted him yesterday," the elder Jedi confirmed, leaning forward in the chair as he braced his elbows on his knees. "The genetic analysis shows that the woman you fought _was_ Allana. Identical down to markers in her genetic structure that can't be reproduced and aren't possible in twins - except she was Jacen's daughter, not mine."

"Are you saying that the girl we fought was Allana who was time lost?"

"Essentially." Rubbing his hands together, Zekk exhaled slowly. "What we've been looking for is how it's possible and who coached her. Your mother, Allana, pointed us in the right direction."

"Mom!" Allana sat up straight as if shot. "But..."

"I know she's dead, but she's manifesting herself as a Force ghost to keep us on the right path. The answer, she told me, lay in my time on Hapes before you were born. It turns out one of the guards on her staff wasn't as completely loyal as she believed and informed Jacen of her... transgression with me."

"So… Jacen Solo was responsible for it?"

"Jacen always believed that you were his daughter; according to his personal journal entries - some of which are stored in the palace's database - he believed it right up until the day he died."

"Then why would he time walk or whatever if he thought I was his daughter?"

"Because it was never _you_ he was talking about in his diaries." Clarifying that point seemed to turn a light bulb on in Allana's head. "Somehow, Jacen was able to cross not just through time but into another timeline. The Allana he spoke of in his journals was his daughter being raised here on Hapes in secret; the daughter he intended to replace _you_ with."

"Except mom got in the way."

"Partially correct." Tenel Ka's ghost materialized in the room at that point and - to everyone's shock - the ghost of one Jacen Solo. "Perhaps it would be best if Jacen explains himself."

Zekk had jumped partially out of his seat with their appearance, his gaze on the man who had been like a brother to him - and forced to kill to protect his daughter. "Jacen."

"Zekk." The unruly hair that had been Jacen Solo's trademark through his childhood was no better in death than it had been in life - and the ghost ran one hand through it, every line of his posture screaming remorse. "An 'I'm sorry' doesn't exactly cut it, but I am."

"I know." And Zekk did know; it had been in Jacen's eyes as he'd died. Jealousy and grief were powerful emotions. "What did you do?"

"Exactly as you surmised," Jacen returned dryly, not looking at his cousin or his friend's daughter. "I crossed the timelines and plucked a young Allana that was my blood kin from it to return to ours. What I never expected was the strain on her young body and mind; the trip caused a shift I never expected."

"In other words, it drove her mad."

"Exactly - and in the process, so was I." Jacen admitted. "You have no idea what it was like watching Tenel Ka raise _your_ child, knowing she should have been mine."

"Excuse me, but said child is still in the room," Allana snapped, glaring at her mother's former consort. "You ruined my life!"

"No," Jacen shook his head. "I didn't know it at the time, but I _gave_ you your life, Allana. Had you been raised here on Hapes, you would have turned out as the daughter I brought over. She was a product of Hapan society, twisted and corrupted. She was everything you could have been had Ta'a Chume had her way."

"You gave that lost little girl to Ta'a Chume?"

"Who better to train the heir to the Hapan throne?" Jacen looked down, chagrined. "I was wrong; I know that now. But I also know that if I hadn't done what I did, you - Allana - would not be the young woman you are today. No matter the strength your mother's influence would have been, her memory under Zekk's tutelage has had a far greater impact that she ever could have in person."

"But-"

"This is a fact, daughter," Tenel Ka admonished softly. "Zekk has raised you well."

"I just have one question," Ben interjected, looking from one ghost to the other.

"Go ahead."

"Why, if the Allana you had trained here was intending to take over the throne, did she attack my Allana in the way she did?"

"Your Allana?"

Ben's lips kicked into a grin at Tenel Ka's reaction to his possessive claim. "Well… she is."

"And willingly, mom."

"A good match," Tenel Ka conceded with a nod of her head, her lips twitching into a faint smile. "Jacen?"

"We don't know what went wrong exactly," he told her honestly. "All I know is that when I died, the ripples were felt through the Force and the Allana I had brought back here was tied to me quite tightly. The loss pushed her over the edge of sanity and she began training - not for taking over the Consortium as we're planned - but for killing Allana and all those she held dear. We don't have the details and we may never have them all, but that's what I know."

"It helps," Zekk informed his old friends. "And it explains more than I could have."

"Do you have further questions?" They both shook their heads and Tenel Ka reached for Jacen's hand. "Listen to your father, daughter; he is a wise man. May the force be with all of you."

"Must you go?"

"Our place is not in this world any longer... and Jacen still has much to atone for."

"This is just part of it. I'm sorry I've caused all of you so much grief."

Zekk rose to his feet. "Whatever you did, Jacen, the outcome was good and I was given the chance to know my daughter; I can't regret that."

"Say hi to Jaina for me - and congratulations."

"Thanks."

Jacen and Tenel Ka disappeared, leaving Zekk with Ben and Allana once more.

"Twisted," Ben whistled with a shake of his head. "And congratulations on what?"

Zekk smiled. "Allana's a big sister again. I'll leave you two be; there's another few bacta treatments you'll both need to undergo, but they'll be shorter now that you've regained consciousness."

"Dad, wait."

Zekk paused in the doorway, turning to look back at the two of them.

"Do I have a little brother or sister?"

His lips kicked into a smile. "Your brother is delighted to have a little sister to go along with his big one."

"What'd you name her?"

Zekk's gaze drifted towards where Jacen and Tenel Ka had been standing. "Do you really have to ask?"

The door closed behind him as he departed, leaving the two of them alone again. Allana sagged back against Ben, her eyes glued to the door. "He would!"

"What? He would what?"

Allana placed her hand over Ben's heart and smiled, looking up at him. "They named her Tenel Ka."


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Their recovery marked a shift in the relationship between Allana and Ben with Allana's resistance to his advances almost completely disappearing. She'd come too close to losing him to resist what was between them any longer and made a point of being open, if hesitant, to the changes. Ben didn't force her, didn't push her, but let here explore their new relationship at her own pace and it blossomed quickly.

It translated into restless nights - and frustration - with Ben holding back on more than one occasion much to Allana's dismay. When she accused him of holding back, his response had been one of amusement; he wanted her willing, not grateful.

A week after the appearance of her mother and Jacen Solo as Force Ghosts, Allana was discharged from the medical bay. Ben, still undergoing his current bacta treatment, wasn't due to be released for another couple of days. Taking the time, Allana headed first to visit Jaina and her new baby sister. She wasn't expected to handle anything when it came to affairs of state just yet, her father had stepped in until Ben was back on his feet, and she relished the chance to talk to just Jaina.

Appearing unannounced at the door to her father and step-mother's apartments, Allana rang the buzzer and shifted from foot to foot, easing the weight on the one. She wasn't fully healed yet - and there was still rehabilitation to do so she wouldn't walk with a time - but she was well enough. The buzzer was answered after several long moments.

"Allana?"

"It's me," she confirmed, feeling ridiculously happy her step-mother had gone so far as to sense her presence. "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure; come in."

The door slid open and Allana stepped inside - only to stop dead in her tracks. Baby paraphernalia was _everywhere_. "Jaina?"

"Over here," came the amused, slightly tired reply. "Did you come to meet your sister?"

Turning in place, Allana scanned the room only to follow the voice to a pile of blankets on the sofa. Jaina and a tiny infant were resting comfortably with just about everything they could ever want or need at hand. Compared to the rest of the room, the area around Jaina and the baby were organized - and Allana raised her eyebrows in silent inquiry.

"Your brother," Jaina informed her with a tolerant smile. "He's of the opinion he's 'helping' and I don't have the heart or the energy to correct him."

"And dad's not around right now - did you want me to take him?"

"I doubt you came to offer to babysit for your brother."

"Where is he?"

"Napping. Poor kid wore himself out being so helpful."

Allana laughed, taking a knee beside the sofa and Jaina obligingly tilted the sleeping bundle in her arms so Allana could see her new sister's face. Reaching out a hesitant hand, Allana ran the backs of her fingers gently down the infant's cheek, her throat tight. "Tenel Ka."

"Your father told you?"

"Not in so many words." Lifting her gaze to Jaina's, Allana's was serious. "What I don't understand is why."

"Isn't the better question why not?" Jaina resumed her former posture, gently rocking the baby back and forth in her arms. "We named your brother after mine as a way to remember the good in him; what he'd once been. Your sister is a way to immortalize the name of your mother; and if we're lucky she'll be at least half the woman she was someday."

Allana's lips twitched into a reluctant smile. "I guess if I have a child, I'll have to think up something new."

"Or something old. The wonderful thing about naming a baby is the meaning behind it; whatever name chosen is always special to their parents in some way." Jaina grinned, a teasing light entering her tired brown eyes. "Expecting soon are we?"

"_No_," Allana couldn't _believe_ how dejected she sounded at the fact and hastily made to correct the blunder. "I mean, something has to happen first before one can expect a child and Ben's always holding back."

The brunette's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I thought you were the one who wanted to wait."

"So did I," Allana settled onto the couch by Jaina's feet, unconsciously taking up the pose her dad had used while explaining the mystery of the attacker several days before and staring at her folded hands. "Every time I _think_ we've made progress, he withdraws again."

"Maybe he's waiting for something."

"For what? He wanted me to say I was his; I did. He loves me the way I want him to just as I do him; what reason could he possibly be waiting for?"

"Why don't you ask him?"

"I did! All he said was that I knew," exasperated, Allana pushed from her braced position and flopped back against the couch, staring at the ceiling. "I won't chain him here, Jaina."

"Not everyone sees devotion as a chain, Allana."

"You know what I mean." Staring at the ceiling, the young Queen wondered if she could find an answer there. Ben was the most contrary, stubborn, hard-headed male she knew - and he suited her perfectly. But she wouldn't, couldn't, ask him to give up his freedom for her. "I already told him I won't take anyone but him as a consort, what more does he want?"

"Proof, maybe?"

"Proof?" Allana glanced at Jaina questioningly. "What kind of proof?"

"The kind your mother gave to my brother, maybe? You still have the Djo medallion, Allana; you never did return it."

"I was going to destroy it," she admitted, returning her attention to the ceiling. "In some kind of public ceremony to showcase that men are no longer slaves. It's a symbol of that and not one I want Ben to wear."

"Men _aren't_ slaves any longer, thanks to you, but that Medallion is a symbol of the monarchy, not that it's enslaved men. I think you under estimate the power of an icon."

"You think I should give the medallion to Ben."

Jaina nodded, even though it wasn't a question.

"It marks him as property, Jaina; and he's not."

"It marks him as _yours_, Allana. In whatever capacity that is, it's that little fact that matters."

"But-"

"Don't try and understand it," Jaina told her dryly. "My cousin is completely insensible when it comes to you. That... and he's had that medallion for years; he probably views it as his anyway."

"He does."

"And you don't?"

The look Allana shot her step-mother was dirty.

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Of course it's a yes; that medallion will never belong to anyone else while I'm Queen - heir or no heir."

"So what are you going to do about it then?"

"Give it back, I guess," the capitulation was grudging. "But I doubt that will change anything."

"Don't do it to change things," Jaina suggested as the baby began to fuss and stir, ready for her next feeding. "Do it because you and I both know that it hasn't belonged to you since you entrusted it to Ben's keeping four years ago. It's no longer yours to keep or destroy; it's his."

* * *

><p>"Ben?"<p>

"There you are Twitch," he was in the process of drying his unruly red curls after his extraction from bacta and the first real shower he'd had since being injured. Recovered enough to stand on his own, the medics had given him a tentative release date of two days - if he continued to be the model patient. "I was starting to wonder if I'd been abandoned."

"Never." Allana put her shoulder into the door frame, her hands behind her back, watching him. "I hear there's a new reform that went through today."

"More of your doing no doubt," he teased, pulling the towel over his head and face and rubbing vigorously. "What cruelty did you inflict on the female population of the cluster now?"

"I made marriage legal."

Ben's hands stilled and slowly, the towel was pulled off his face, dropping into his lap. "Say again?"

"Don't get me wrong," she said instead. "It's still imperfect and a woman can have more than one spouse under that current law but now she's responsible for him the way she never would have been for a consort."

"But he's no longer property."

"Right." Allana pulled her hands from behind her back and tossed the contents his way. "But this is - and it belongs to you."

The Djo medallion was plucked from the air with one strong hand, Ben's fingers running across it in a caress that made _her_ mouth go dry. She wanted to feel that kind of caress on _her_ skin. A half-smile split his lips as he looked up from the medallion and back to her. "I thought you said-"

"Forget what I said," she didn't move from her position by the door. "That medallion has been yours since the day you first received it, Ben. It will always _be_ yours; even if it's in my possession, you're its rightful owner."

"And what it signifies?"

"What, that you're my property? That I own you and no one else can touch you?"

"If that's what it's meant before, than yes."

Meeting his gaze head on, Allana found she couldn't smile and her stomach was in knots - but her words were firm when she spoke. "It means what it's always meant; not that you belong to me... but that _I_ belong to _you_."

Ben's answer came in the form of her being swept into his arms in the space of a heart beat and kissed with all of the pent up passion and frustration the last week had wrought. It was in his touch, his lips; there was no going back this time. She would belong to him completely - and welcomed it.

* * *

><p><em>Four months later<em>

"Allana..."

Her lips turned down in her sleep, the familiar feel of strong fingers as they slid along her cheek drawing her head around towards them. "Hmmm?"

The gentle chuckle that often followed her into her dreams sounded near her ear. "Come on, sweetheart, it's time to get up."

"Mmm, no." She didn't so much as open her eyes as she rolled towards those warm, calloused fingers and blindly reached out to catch them with her own. "_You_ should come back to bed."

"Much as I want to, love, you know we can't." His lips feathered so softly across her that she couldn't be sure she'd felt it. "There's an important announcement for you to make today."

Stubbornly keeping her eyes closed, she pouted. "I _always _ make important announcements."

"But not ones like this." His free hand slid down her body and she sleepily arched into his touch before it came to rest low on her slightly swollen abdomen. "It's not every day the Consortium gets an heir."

Sleep retreated and Allana reluctantly opened her eyes to find Ben leaning over her with a smile on his lips that was just for her. Her own spread into a soft one just for him as he lifted his hand to brush her messy bangs from her face. "Good morning."

"'Morning," she echoed, tilting her face and receiving the kiss she'd been hoping to. "Mmmm... _now_ it's a good morning."

He laughed softly. "You're insatiable."

"Are you complaining?"

"Never." He eased down next to her and nuzzled her cheek. "I just thought pregnancy was supposed to temper that."

"Maybe in fifty years," she told him as she snuggled into his fully clothed form, "when you're toothless, sagging around the middle and can't walk anymore."

Rolling her back into her back and pinning her to the bed, Ben's blue eyes twinkled as he looked down at her. "Does this mean you'll be accepting my proposal?"

"Was there one?" Her grin turned impish, her own eyes dancing. "I seem to recall being asked a question at a very... inopportune moment last night."

"I suppose I could have timed it better," he bent to brush his lips against hers again and Allana noticed that - unlike the early days of their change in relationship, Ben no longer put his full weight on her - of course, she suspected he was trying to avoid hurting the baby. Not that he could, but she knew he'd always be the strong, thoughtful and courageous man she'd fallen in love with all those years ago at the Jedi Academy. For Ben _not_ to be so considerate would be out of character

"Probably."

"Is now better?"

"I'm not quite as occupied as I was last night. I seem to recall having my hands full - almost as much as yours were."

"And will be again," he promised with a grin.

Allana smiled as she leaned forward to place a kiss on his jaw. "I'll hold you to that, Skywalker."

"I wouldn't get in the habit of calling me that, Twitch." His expression lost some of its mirth as he pressed his forehead to hers. "I mean... I'd like you to be a Skywalker too."

"Djo-Skywalker," she told him softly, reaching up to cup his face in her hands as she stroked her thumbs over his cheeks. "Unless you're willing to become a Djo."

"If need be."

"I'd never ask that of you, Ben." Her gaze traveled over his features, recalling the events of the last four months, since their relationship had changed, that had led to this moment. A moment she had been subconsciously working towards ever since accepting the crown. A moment she'd never dared to dream could happen. "You know that."

"Yeah... I do." Tilting his head, he rubbed the tip of his nose against hers. "I love you, Allana. I've loved you for a long time and... there is no one else I'd rather have beside me for whatever's to come." Pulling back, his weight braced on his forearms, he searched her gaze - and his own was as serious as she'd ever seen it. "Will you marry me, Allana Djo?"

"I told you once that - when the time was right - I'd marry you, Ben."

"I know."

"How do you know the time's right?"

He shifted his weight and his hand covered the slight bulge of her abdomen through the covers, his gaze never leaving hers. "Because it _feels_ right."

"And it didn't before?"

"Not like this."

Her hand crept down to cover his. "Because of the baby?"

"Not just the baby." He searched her gaze, his own intense. "Do you love me Allana?"

"You know I do."

"Then marry me - not because you have to, or because of the baby - but because you want to, Twitch... because you'd go as crazy without me as I'd go without you."

Unexpected tears leaked from the corner of her eyes, but she knew he could see they weren't sorrowful this time - just like the smile that spread across her lips was jubilant instead of mournful. He bent down to kiss her tears away and, as his face neared hers, his ear almost level with her lips, she whispered her response.

* * *

><p><em>One month later<em>

"I never thought I'd see the day where you and I would be grandparents of the same baby."

Zekk laughed at Mara Jade-Skywalker's dry observation, his gaze on the dance floor where his daughter and Mara's son were dancing their first dance together as husband and wife.

Ben and Allana had foregone the ostentatious bonding ceremony of the Hapans and instead chosen a simple and dignified exchange of vows among cherished friends. It was similar to the Jedi ceremony and had incorporated many of the same themes, along with a few of their own. Because of their input, it had been a ceremony uniquely tailored to fit and resulted in a beautiful and moving exchange that had left the guests without a doubt as to their commitment to one another.

Not that anyone had come with any - but if they had, they'd been put to rest.

Lifting his glass to his daughter as she glanced his way, Zekk smiled at the way she seemed to radiate happiness. "I saw grandparents in our future a long time ago," he told the Jedi Master with a telling look. "What I never expected to see was Allana finally capitulate to Marriage."

"Oh?"

"Ben's been trying to convince her ever since he got here."

"So he's said." Mara took a sip of her drink, watching Ben with Allana, a smile on her lips. It was clear she'd never seen her son so happy - and that the newlyweds were oblivious to everything and everyone around them. "What changed her mind?"

"Circumstance, I think."

"You mean her changes in Hapan policy."

"Among other things."

"And scared to face being a mother on her own." Zekk and Mara turned to find Jaina, her arms full of Allana's baby sister, had moved to join them. She tilted her face to Zekk and received a kiss on the cheek for her troubles as he ruffled Tenel Ka's dark hair with one hand. Jaina's gaze met Mara's. "But you're right; I think there's more than one factor involved here."

"Other than the fact she loves Ben." Luke Skywalker's dry observation drew their attention as he slid his arm around his wife's waist and squeezed. "I don't care why she finally said yes; just that she put him out of his misery."

"Misery?" Zekk laughed, glancing back at the dancing couple. "He's hardly been miserable."

"Ah, but you, more than anyone else, can understand his unique position," Luke reminded the younger Jedi with a pointed glance at his niece. The inclination of Zekk's head was his only acknowledgement of the hit as Luke continued. "She's good for him."

"They're good for each other," Mara corrected him with a smile. "Did he tell you he's decided to stay here with her?"

"And give up his nomadic lifestyle?"

Mara nodded and the Skywalkers shared a look that Zekk had no trouble understanding before adding his own opinion to the matter. "For now, you mean. When the baby's old enough, I'm sure they'll travel."

"It's his days as a wandering Jedi that are at an end, Prince Consort," teased Jaina as she gently rocked Tenel Ka to avoid waking her. "Besides, who says they're only going to have the one baby?"

"I'm sure they'll want more kids in time, but... what?" Zekk looked from Luke to Jaina to Mara and back as the three of them exchanged a look he didn't understand. "What?"

Luke slapped him on the shoulder. "Skywalker genes tend to be very... dominant."

"Meaning?"

Mara made to lead Luke away to the dance floor as it opened to other couples and tossed her reply back over her shoulder. "Twins tend to skip a generation - it's in their blood."

Stunned, Zekk's gaze snapped back to where Ben and Allana were still in the middle of the dance floor, slowly being surrounded by other couples. Jaina laid a hand on his arm and squeezed, drawing his attention back to her.

"Don't worry about it, Zekk."

"But.. twins?"

She laughed. "If it happens, it happens and they'll be twice blessed for it."

"Wouldn't she know?"

"Eventually. Look at her; do you think she cares?"

Looking back to his daughter, Zekk had to agree. Allana likely didn't care how many babies or what sex they would be - simply that they were Ben's. His lips kicked slowly into a smile as he shook his head and marveled. "So long as she's happy..."

As if hearing his words, Allana lifted her gaze from Ben's as looked across the crowded floor to spy her father and smiled radiantly... _that_ was never in question.

_fin_


	13. Epilogue: Worth Waiting For

Epilogue: **Worth Waiting For**

This day had been a long time in coming.

Starting with Zekk and Tenel Ka's indiscretion that had resulted in the Hapan heir, to the public revelation that Jacen was not Allana's father; her mother's death at Jacen's hands to Zekk's shouldering of her as his responsibility; Allana's choice in taking the Hapan crown with the intention of reform coupled with initial rejection of Ben Skywalker's proposals and finally Ben's determination to remain a part of her life; and - eventually - the key part when he convinced the Hapan Queen Mother to finally marry him.

However Zekk looked at the road they followed, this day had been a long time in coming - but one that had been inevitable. From the moment he'd suspected his daughter's feelings for the Skywalker heir, he'd known this day would come. He'd been expecting it, dreading it; loving the theory and then the reality of it.

That didn't make the waiting any easier.

Zekk paced the floor outside the infirmary, casting worried glances towards the closed door. His wife - Jaina - was seated nearby with their daughter, Tenel Ka, asleep against her shoulder and watching him. He ran a hand through silvering hair and checked his chrono again. "What's taking so long?"

Despite the fact she'd already repeated her answer to this question several times, Jaina's smile was tolerantly amused. Zekk never liked waiting. "No longer then when our children were born. These things take time."

"Can't they speed it up, I mean, they're both Jedi for Force sakes!"

"So are we," she reminded him as she pushed to her feet and stepped into his path. "That didn't help us any."

There was a muffled shriek from the other side of the closed door and Zekk blanched. Jaina slid one arm around her husband's waist. "Come and sit; hold Tenel Ka. Before you know it, you'll be holding your grandchild."

"_Our_ grandchild."

Jaina didn't correct him; this baby was related to her only through her blood tie to Ben Skywalker. Instead she helped him sit and slid their daughter into his arms. Zekk, ever the conscientious parent, turned his attention towards their youngest and cradled her carefully. Another muffled shriek could be heard and Jaina winced, recognizing the pitch. "I think she just threatened to castrate my cousin."

"Must be a common threat during the delivery."

"We never mean it," Jaina assured him with a smile, stretching out muscles that had fallen asleep with the baby's weight and were now free. Allana's next shriek made her frown and reassess her last comment. "At least, _most_of us don't mean it. I can only hope - for Ben's sake - that Allana falls in that 'most' category..."

* * *

><p>"That's it; you're doing fine Allana. Breathe, just breathe."<p>

"You tell me to breathe one more time, and you'll be the one ne - _ah!_"

Allana's whole body contorted as the contraction rendered her unable to speak. Inhaling sharply, she bore down and squeezed Ben's hand in a crushing grip. The Force was no use to her; she hadn't the control to bring it to bear - and Ben was no better.

Since her contractions had begun seven hours earlier, he'd steadily gone downhill. Her usually jovial and somewhat sarcastic husband had fled to be replaced by a man careening between the fear of losing her and the exultation of becoming a parent. The contraction - which was now bare minutes from the last one - left her breathless as she struggled to relax upon its dissipation.

Ben leaned over, pressing a cool cloth to her temple. "They're close now."

"No kidding."

"They wouldn't hurt so much if you'd let them give you something for the pain."

"And ruin your fun?"

"This is hardly my idea of fun, Allana."

She inhaled sharply. "And it's mine?"

There was a pause as another contraction hit, her belly rippling as the muscles worked to expel the baby. Ben mopped her brown again, this time adding a kiss to her temple for good measure as she lay back against the bed.

"I love you."

Allana turned her gaze his way at his soft declaration - so reminiscent of the first time he'd said those words to her - and a weary smile crossed her lips. "If you didn't, you wouldn't be here."

"Neither would you."

"You mean I wouldn't be in this situation, period."

"Exactly."

They shared a smile and Allana could feel his inner equilibrium returning despite how imminent the birth of their child was. With her calm, came his, and a moment later his hand settled across her distended belly - and the pain of another contraction was eased. His hand twitched, but Ben didn't move it. His eyes were closed when she looked, completely in focus as he dulled the edge of the stabbing sensation and let her get her breath back. Allana pushed as she felt the stirrings of the contractions, controlling her breathing now that she could, and gripped the bed instead of Ben's hands.

She wouldn't risk breaking his concentration for anything at that moment - and she'd never loved him more - as the contraction was swiftly followed by another and then another.

The Doctor in charge of the delivery looked up at that moment, and Allana could see the crinkling of her eyes around the mask she wore. "One more good push should do it, your highness; I can see the top of the head."

_Thank the Force!_Allana gripped the bed, bearing down with the next wave and her body heaved to expel the small infant. A moment of silence was followed by a wail as the baby took their first breath. Ben's hold on her pain wavered and fractured with the sound, but Allana had expected it, and she collapsed back to the bed, panting.

The Doctor was making noises to the squalling infant as she finished the last details of the delivery and then looked up to the anxious parents. "A healthy baby boy, your majesties."

"A boy," Ben's wonder was but a whisper as he immediately looked down at his wife.

Her fingers locked with his and he bent, capturing her lips in a kiss before the startled medic. Despite her exhaustion, Allana returned it. Everything he was feeling was in that moment; emotions that mirrored her own. They hadn't wanted to know the sex of their baby - only that he or she wasn't twins - and the joy she felt was equally mirrored in his kiss.

It was only when she pushed against him that Ben reluctantly pulled back, breaking the kiss. His smile was for her alone. "Thank you."

"To us both," Allana told him tiredly. "He wouldn't exist without either of us."

His response was another quick, butterfly soft kiss.

Returning, the now clean infant in her grasp and her mask gone, the Doctor approached the bed with a smile. "Would you like to hold him, your highness?"

Allana held her arms out, as if to say it was a ridiculous question. The tiny infant was placed immediately within the crook of her arms - and she knew just how to hold him after having practiced on her half-siblings. Gently, she tucked the blanket away from the baby's face and caressed his soft cheek. Ice blue eyes - the trademark of the Skywalker line - stared back at her in surprised silence.

"Hello little one," she told him with a smile. "I'm your mommy - and the big guy with the red hair beside me is your daddy."

Leaning over the bed, Ben placed his head on Allana's shoulder so they could look down at their son together. His small mouth opened and he yawned. They laughed softly, Ben's hands creeping across the blankets. One slid to join hers where it cradled the newborn, the other sliding around her waist. "Did we discuss boy names?"

"I don't remember," Allana admitted, the baby's yawn having reminded her own her own fatigue. Despite the miracle in her arms, she found the last hours were catching up with her. "What do you think?"

"I think you said I could name her if she was a girl - and I said you could name him if he was a boy." A quick check proved that the nurse was correct and Ben gently brushed a kiss across her cheek. "Your call, Twitch."

She stared at him for a half second before turning her gaze back to the miracle in her arms. Her voice was sure, but soft, as she gave their son his name. "Anakin."

Ben arched his eyebrows. "Another Anakin Skywalker?"

Allana nodded, noting that the baby's eyes had closed. "Why not? He had to have done something right to have deserved children like your father and his sister. That alone is a legacy to be cherished and honored no matter what else he did."

Ben had no response to that; it wasn't an angle that anyone ever saw to the man who'd become Darth Vader.

"I just hope he has better luck than your grandfather - just like my little brother will have better luck than his namesake."

And that said it all.

The first Anakin Skywalker had fallen for reasons unknown, just as Jacen Solo had fallen into darkness due his own demons - but these, the children who bore their names and their hopes for the future were a redemption in name if nothing else... and Ben found he had no objection despite what his own father might say.

"Anakin Skywalker it is."

Sitting on the bed, they cradled their son together and were still sitting that way when Zekk and Jaina were permitted a short visit with the new family. The only difference was that Ben was now seated on the bed cradling both worn out infant and mother - and was the only one still awake.

He flashed his cousin and father-in-law a smile that was still slightly shell-shocked.

"You look as stunned as I felt when I heard about Allana." Zekk's hushed whisper was in deference to both sleeping infants - his youngest daughter and new grandson - and the new mother sleeping in Ben's arms. Allana didn't stir as Ben gently shifted her grip and let Zekk take his grandson in his arms with a silent nod.

Zekk hefted the little boy with care, and cradled him close. "He's beautiful."

"What'd you name him?"

Ben met Jaina's gaze. "Anakin."

Tears flooded her eyes - as much from the memory of her long lost little brother as from the sentimental value of having the name returned to the surname it belonged to. She nodded once, holding Tenel Ka close and turned to meet Zekk's solemn expression. Bending close, she brushed the backs of her fingers over Anakin's cheek but remained unable to speak.

Zekk, instead, stepped close to her and slid an arm around her waist as he cradled the newborn with a nod to the new father. "Anakin Skywalker, huh?"

"Allana's choice."

Looking down to the sleeping infant, Zekk's lips stretched into a smile. "It's perfect."

"No," Allana mumbled sleepily, lifting her lids to look at her father and stretching her arms out for her baby. "He is. Now give me back my baby and let us get some sleep. You can start spoiling him tomorrow - Gramps."

Handing Anakin back to his father, Zekk then bent and placed a kiss on Allana's cheek as he hugged her gently. "Congratulations, kiddo."

"Thanks dad."

Drawing back, he grasped one of her hands and squeezed her fingers. "I always told you the best things in life were worth waiting for."

"That and more." Her gaze drifted to Ben and their son - and a soft smile creased her lips. "Much more."

_fin_


End file.
